The Girl in the Wheelchair
by ArcaneHex77
Summary: The flock meets a girl named Jone, who was paralized from the waist down and spends her life in a wheelchair. Jone has no family, and no home. So the flock takes her in, but how far will Jone go to finally have a family? After Fang, and Fang never left.
1. Shout for Help

**This sort of just came to me when I sprained my ankle and spent a day at a museum in a wheelchair. I really hope you all like it! Plus I expect tons of reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any Maximum Ride characters except from the ones I make up. ; )**

**Like I said in my summary, just imagine this happened after Fang and Fang never left. Like, there was no other epilogue. It just ended with Total's wedding.**

Max POV

I looked at Fang, my right wing man, my soul mate, and he smiled at me. The flock was back at our little house in Colorado. Fang and I were on our way to get breakfast. I decided to give the Flock a treat, so Fang and I were going to the nearest town, going to the nicest diner, and taking home a king-worthy meal.

We circled the nearest town, and landed behind an IHOP. I'm pretty sure we've heard of it, or flown over it once or twice. Wasn't IHOP short for IHOP FOR JOY THAT THIS PLACE IS SO GREAT or something? Well it should be. We landed, and I fixed my hair, attempting to look normal. Fang just gave me a look that said _Forget it, it's helpless._

I nodded in understanding. We headed in, ordered everything the flock wanted, included blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes, hash browns, waffles, muffins, chocolate milk, orange juice, and much more, I assure you. Then we ordered it all to go. The waitress was a little shocked, but didn't complain.

Carrying the food while flying was hell. We both held six bags each, three on each arm, filled with Styrofoam containers. We were lucky that the house wasn't that far away, or we would have fallen right out of the sky.

But we didn't even make it all the way home before we heard the cries for help.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Fang. He shook his head.

Then I heard another "Help! Help me!"

"Okay, I heard _that_." Fang said, raising his eyebrows.

I looked down, and sure enough, I saw a person on the ground, in the middle of the forest. I could barely see her under all the trees, but I could just make out her figure.

I looked at Fang. We both knew the last time I stopped mid-flight for someone who needed help, I found my half-sister and nearly killed myself. Win some, lose some.

"No, Max, we'll drop off breakfast at home, then go check it out. We can't stop now."

Of coarse, following my stupid gut, I started to drop down to ground level.

Fang yelled for me, again and again, but I ignored him. I landed, almost dropping the food, and started running towards the voice.

As I got closer, I could tell the yelling was coming from a teenage girl. At least that's what it sounded like. I folded in my wings, sensing that she was close.

I hopped over a couple bushes and found a girl crumbled on the ground, next to a knocked over wheel chair in the middle of the forest. What the…?

I dropped the food carefully on the ground and ran to her side, hearing Fang's footsteps behind me.

"Oh thank God. Please… you have to help me!" She said in between pants and sobs.

I kneeled beside her, looking for broken bones or sprains.

"What happened?" I asked, trying to sit her up.

"I was just wheeling through, and my wheelchair caught on something, and the next thing I knew I'm on the ground and there's a horrible pain on my shoulder."

"Okay, first, do you think you're shoulder might be dislocated? Second, what the hell were you doing in the middle of the woods on a _wheelchair?_ Third, what's your name? Just so I have something to call you."

She stuttered at first, too shocked to answer right away. "Uh… no. I've dislocated my shoulder before, and it hurt a lot worse than this. I just think I badly bruised it. Um, what I'm doing out here is kind of complicated to explain. Let's just say that I've been out here for days. And my name is Jone. I don't have a last name. Never did. At least not one that I'm aware of."

I nodded, checking her shoulder. She was right. Her shoulder blade was badly bruised, close to dislocating. But it would heal. Like everything else. I helped her up, and picked up her wheelchair with my free hand. She sat down heavily in it, and sighed with relief.

"Thank you. Thank you so much. You're a saint." Jone said.

I shrugged. "So, uh, why are you in a wheelchair, anyway?" I asked, trying not to pry.

"Oh, um… I was paralyzed from the waist down when I was four. I've been in this exact wheelchair ever since."

Huh. I've never met someone who was subjected to a life in a wheelchair. I've heard about this kind of stuff, but never actually seen it. After she told me this, I realized that her legs were completely limp. I hadn't noticed that before. Usually I'm more observant.

Fang caught up with us, looked at Jone, and gave me a questioning glare.

"Oh, um, Fang this is Jone. Jone, meet Fang." I said, motioning to each other with my hand.

Fang said hi absently, then looked at me. "Max, what the hell was that about? I said we couldn't land."

"And yet, we both landed." I said. "Plus, it was the right thing to do. Jone here, would have probably died of starvation or shock or something if I hadn't come to her rescue."

"I'm sorry." Jone said. "I don't mean to be a burden. I guess it was just instinct to shout for help."

Fang shook his head. "No, it wasn't your fault. Don't apologize."

All was silent, except for a couple morning birds chirping in the distance.

"So, were you guys flying or something and spotted me?" I looked at Fang, my eyes a bit wide. How could she have possibly guessed we were flying? Did she see one of our wings? I looked at Fang. No, his wings were folded in tightly against his back. "I don't know how you could have heard me in a plane, so I figured one of you must have saw me. Or were you in a helicopter?" She continued. Oh, okay. She thought we were in a plane. Good. "I heard you guys talking about landing before, so I just assumed…"

"Yeah." I said. "We were flying, and I saw you." She nodded.

"Okay, well, do you know your way back to a main road? Because we've got to get this food to our house." Fang said. I looked at him as if he were crazy. Because I thought he was. Was he serious? We couldn't leave this poor, disabled girl find her way out of the middle of the forest and try to hitchhike!

"Fang!" I hissed. He glared at me, his face questioning. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" I said more calmly, gesturing with my head for him to follow me. I lead him behind a tree, making sure we were out of Jone's hearing range.

"What are you doing?" I snapped at him, my voice harsh but only above a whisper.

"I was making sure she knew her way back. It's called being nice." He half-whispered back.

"No, that's not being nice. That's just a kind way of saying 'We're leaving now don't bother to follow us.'" I couldn't believe he was really considering this. I understood he was mad when I saved Ella from those jerks and got shot, but there was no one here to threaten us, and the girl's in a freaking _wheelchair_!

"Well what do you expect me to say?" He hissed.

I hesitated, expecting him to figure it out on his own.

He figured it out. "Max, no, that's out of line."

"The least we can do is help her. She obviously has no where to go. Otherwise she wouldn't be _here_. And she told me she doesn't have a last name."

"So?"

I rolled my eyes. "So that means she probably never had parents. She probably never had a family, so she was never officially named. I bet you she named herself Jone."

Fang sighed. He was irritated, but he would have to deal. I knew this was the absolute right thing to do, so I was intended on doing it.

"Fine." He said, a little harshly. I smiled triumphantly.

I walked back to Jone, with Fang on my heels, and said, "Jone, our house is not that far away from here, so we're going to go there, drop off all this food, then come back and get you."

"How do I know you'll come back?" Jone asked. Her eyes were sincere, and a little afraid yet very happy.

I took off the home-made necklace Angel made me for our last "birthday". Fang had one just like it, but a tad different. I placed it in her hands.

"This is a necklace my little sister made for me. It's very special, and I love it. So I wouldn't give it to you if I wasn't coming back."

Jone nodded, and smiled. She looked at the necklace, playing with it in her hands. "Thank you. For helping me, I mean."

I smiled at her. I could tell she trusted us, and that she knew I trusted her too.

I grabbed the bags of food, and Fang did the same. "Oh, and Jone," Jone looked up at me expectantly. "We weren't flying in a plane. Or a helicopter. If you are coming back with us, then you should know how you're getting there."

I revealed my wings, watching Jone's eyes go wide. They went even wider when she saw Fang's wings. I laughed a little, then took off.

I felt great after that. Accomplished. Compassionate. However you want to call it, it felt great.

**Review, review, review! This is just a one-shot, but I'll decide that after I see how many reviews I get. ; )**


	2. Worth While

**I didn't get as many reviews as I hoped. Anyway, based on the one review I did get, I decided to go on with the story.**

**Disclaimer: Well, the title basically speaks for itself. I am disclaiming Maximum Ride. So why am I even writing this? You know what? I'm only going to write this once more throughout the rest of the story, so listen up and listen good. I. Do. Not. Own. Maximum. Ride. This. Will. Not. Be. In. A. Future. Book. And yes, I believe sentences are more dramatic when each word is written as a separate sentence. So deal with it.**

Max POV

"Breakfast is served!" I said abnormally loudly as I kicked the front door open and walked/jogged to the kitchen. Within seconds, everyone in the house, even Total and Akila, was out of their rooms and crowding in the kitchen. The smell of maple syrup and steaming hash browns overflowed, and yes I do literally mean overflowed, the kitchen, and some of the flock's mouths were watering.

I went through the list of items, handing each Styrofoam container to different hungry bird kids, asking who wanted what. During all the confusion, I snuck a messily wrapped hash brown into my sweatshirt pocket without anyone noticing.

"Okay, you guys start eating, but Iggy," Iggy looked up, a forkful of blueberry pancake halfway into his mouth. "You need to come help Fang and me pick something up." Frustration and impatience crossed Iggy's face, and he stuffed the blueberry pancake into his mouth as he got up. I was given a couple curious glances and arched eyebrows, but I ignored them, walking right out the door and throwing myself off the ledge.

Jone POV

I looked at the girl's necklace in my hands. It wasn't until about two seconds after she left that I realized I never caught her name. Anyway, the necklace was… interesting. At the orphanage I use to live at, I saw some pretty different people coming to adopt children. Most of the women who visited wore beautiful, exotic or beaded necklaces of all kinds, but I'd never seen anything like this one. It was a lower jaw bone with two little fangs spiking up around a mixture of feathers, glass, and soda-can tops, all hanging gracefully and dangerously on a black silk cord.

It wasn't anything I would wear, but it was most definitely eye-catching. Her little sister made this? On her own? I wondered how old she was. Where in the world did she get a jaw bone? Surely she couldn't have just waltzed outside and picked it up off the ground.

I sat uncomfortably in my wheelchair, waiting for the nice girl and the strange goth boy to return.

Those kids had wings.

I still wasn't sure I'd seen it right. Maybe the loss of food and water was finally coming back to me. Maybe I was hallucinating. But then again, did that mean the girl wasn't real either? Had I just hit my head and now I was seeing and hearing things?

No. Impossible.

I had a jaw bone on a string to prove it was real.

Max POV

My wings flapped powerfully, leading Iggy to the spot where we found Jone. I heard Fang's wings flapping on my right. How is it that his wings are about the same exact size as mine, and yet his wings completely drowned out the sound of my wings? Or maybe that's just what it sounded like to me. His were so graceful, so magical. Mine were clumsy and aggressive.

We neared the spot where Jone was, and I banked downward. The tree branches and leaves scraped my arms, but I've had worse. I landed heavily right in front of Jone, and quickly folded in my wings.

"Here," I said, taking the hash brown out of my pocket and handing it to her. It was a tad squished, but it was still edible, "you're probably hungry. How long ago did you run out of food?"

Surely this girl was smart enough to bring food and water out into the wilderness. And since she didn't have any food on her at the moment, she must have ran out. No one could be out here for days and still be alive without water. But by the way she demolished that hash brown, I knew it's been a while since she had food.

"I didn't think to bring any. I just left without a second thought. But I got thirsty fast. I was trying to find a stream or something when I tripped and fell." Jone said in between swallows.

I sensed Fang and Iggy landing somewhere behind me, but when I turned around, all I saw were trees. I heard rustling and swearing a couple dozen yards away.

"Guys! Over here!" I shouted. I counted to four, and they both appeared out from behind the bushes.

"Jeez! A little warning next time you drop like that and we're suppose to follow you!" Iggy said, blindly brushing dirt off his pants.

"Yeah, what's with you and sudden dive-bombing lately?" Fang asked, pulling a twig out of his hair.

I numbly said sorry, then turned to Jone. "Okay, so you already know Fang, and this is Iggy. We're going to help you get back to our place. Oh, and Iggy, this is Jone. If you haven't already figured it out, she's in a-"

"Wheelchair." Iggy finished. "Yeah I figured that much out."

"Okay, Fang and Iggy, you guys grab the wheelchair, I'll carry Jone."

I picked Jone up out of her chair bridal-style, and Fang and Iggy both grabbed the wheelchair, each holding one side of it with one hand.

Jone was, honestly, not heavy. She didn't weigh more than 85 pounds. Yes, that was around the same weight as us bird kids, but it was still lighter than most things we've had to carry. Having her so close gave me a chance to see what he really looked like. She had light, pale brown hair pulled back into a messy low ponytail. Her lips were thin and cracked from dehydration. Her eyes were sea blue, and looked pained and bloodshot. Her figure was thin as a twig, and very frail, but I could see some upper body strength (probably from pushing her wheelchair all the time) through her thin, grey, ratty, zip-up sweatshirt.

"So, what's your name?" Jone asked while we were flying. Huh, I didn't even realize I hadn't given her my name. Usually, most people we meet already know my name.

"Uh… my name is Max."

"Oh, is that short for something? Like Maxine, Maximilian, Maxi-"

"Um, no." I interrupted. "It's actually short for Maximum. My full name is Maximum Ride."

"Oh, that's a strange name. But it's cool. I wish I had a name like that." Jone said. Her eyes almost went a little sad, as if she really didn't like her name.

"Jone is a cool name. It's different, yet creative."

"You really think so?"

"Absolutely." Yep, that's me. Max, who listens to people's problems and makes those problems go away.

We stormed through the door, and I immediately and gently placed Jone on the couch next to Nudge, feeling my shoulders becoming stiff and sore from carrying her. She really wasn't heavy, but when you carry her for ten minutes while trying to fly starts to get to you.

"Max, who's you friend?" Nudge asked slowly, eyeing Jone as Fang placed her wheelchair beside her.

I sighed. Time to get this over with. Everyone was either sitting in the kitchen or the living room eating breakfast. Fortunately the wall that connected the living room and kitchen had a huge opening, so everyone can see and hear me.

"Okay, everyone, this is Jone." Jone smiled sheepishly, acting very shy. "Jone, this is the flock. You know me, Max, Iggy, and Fang, that's the Gasman, Nudge, Angel, Dylan, Total, and total's wife, Akila." I said, pointing to each flock member as their confusion grew.

"Hey there," Total said. Jone let out a small yip, surprised to hear the dog talking. "So, Jone, not to be rude, but, where'd you come from?"

"Oh, I- uh, I got hurt in the woods and Max came and saved me."

Oh's and sighs and sounds of comprehension came from everyone. It was a big surprise when one of us brought someone outside of the flock home (wherever home would be at the time). It was no surprise when I decide to be Super girl and help the less fortunate. Again.

"What happened to your legs?" Nudge asked. I shot her a look that said she was being rude, but she didn't notice.

"Yeah, what's your story? You got a family?" Total asked, smiling (I didn't even know dogs could smile) at Akila.

Jone heavily sighed through her nose, deep in thought for a moment. "Well, to answer Nudge's question, I was paralyzed when I was four years old. I'm doomed to the uncomfortable wheelchair until I die, or magically raise the money to get surgery and replace my legs. For, uh, Total's- um, question, I don't have a family. My mom died when I was born, and my dad committed suicide the same day because he wouldn't dare live one day without his soul mate. Neither of them signed my birth certificate, or even bothered to give me a name, so I was sent to an orphanage here in Colorado where the head mistress named me." Jone's voice quivered at the end, as if it was hard for her to talk about the orphanage. Either she really missed the orphanage, or she absolutely despised it.

"Why aren't you there now?" Nudge continued, "I mean, I know how hard it is to live without ever knowing your parents, but why aren't you at that orphanage where you could at least be safe, fed, and sleep in the same bed every night?"

"Don't you get it?" Jone asked hesitantly, "I ran away from that orphanage." I guess she despised it. "First of all, I was not safe. At all. The devil lady in charge, Mrs. Shoe, was a monster! Mrs. Shoe isn't her real name. There's a reason people call her that. She throws shoes at kids! Beats us with them, too! And most of the time it's for no good reason."

Nudge was on the verge of tears, I could tell. Out of all of us, I had to say Nudge was the most emotional. It wasn't that she wasn't tough enough to hide her emotions, just that she was tough enough to even show them.

"Second," Jone continued, "the biggest meal I've ever had in my life was half a turkey leg, one spoonful of mashed potatoes, a small piece of cornbread, and a broken glass of really old apple cider for Thanksgiving. Mrs. Shoe only gave us dinner on rare occasions, when someone got adopted. She use to say that if we were well behaved enough that a visitor decided to adopt someone, the rest of us would be rewarded with a meal. The older, more responsible kids tried to get adopted just to save the younger kids from starvation. But the most visitors we've ever had was twice in three weeks, so some kids eventually did end up dieing."

"And for the sleep in the same bed thing, I never did. I slept in my wheelchair. Most of the other kids slept on the floor. And when someone moved out, their bed was always claimed before I could get to it. Nobody thought I should get a bed because I had the wheelchair. They all said it wasn't fair."

Even I was becoming soft from this story. It made our life story seem like a week in Vegas. Despite all the hardship we went through, we got to see the world, eat tons of different foods, meet all kinds of people (including the president), and practically become famous.

I felt bad for Jone. She left her hell on earth looking for a better life, and happened to run into us. Maybe we should make her time here worth while.


	3. Burritos

**Thanks for all the reviews! I really only got three so far, but since I'm a nice person I'll say they're great anyway! And yes, I agree, I think I was the only person who thought of this for a story.**

**I told you I'm not writing another disclaimer. You should have listened in the last chapter.**

Max POV

Nine days later.

It was dinner time again. Iggy made burritos (He's been making a lot of Mexican food lately). Jone has been settling in nicely. Everyone excepted her like she's been with us for months. Like she was apart of the family. It made her really happy, and I was glad. She should be happy. Jone was a bright girl, who looked really pretty when she blow dried her hair in a certain way that Nudge showed her. She was nice, too. She really knew people. The dinner reminded me of Jone's first dinner with us. Jone had squeezed her wheelchair in between my chair and Nudge's chair (it was her official spot now). Iggy had made enchiladas wearing his famous "Say no to drugs, say yes to tacos!" apron.

As we ate, Jone was bombarded with questions. I knew there'd be questions, I just never expected the answers. She doesn't have a favorite book because she's never read one, the same goes for movies, songs, and plays. Her favorite color is beige. You read correctly, beige. Her favorite flower is a water lily.

Jone said there was a picture of a painted water lily in the orphans' bedroom right next to where she use to sleep, and whenever she got sad or angry, she would stare at that picture for hours and see a whole other world in the colors and texture. She said it made her calm, safe. That one little lily took away all of her fears (her words, not mine). It was a beautiful story, but I just never expected someone who's never read a book or listened to music be so… deep. And her favorite food was Oreos, even though she'd never tried them. She once heard that they were milk's favorite cookie. And she loved milk, so she decided she loved Oreos as well.

Jone had to be one of the most interesting person I've ever met. How could a person who's never been outside up until a week ago have so much outlook on the world?

Then she started questioning our life.

"Oh, you don't want to know about our miserable life." I said, my mouth full of enchilada. Table manners didn't really apply to someone who willingly stuffed her face with desert rat.

Jone only shrugged. "Your life can't be much more miserable than mine."

She had a point there.

I started with how we were all test tube babies donated to the School for experimenting. Nudge picked up at the part where we spent our entire childhood in a painful hell. She even described all the agonizing medicines and surgeries. What, was she trying to make Jone feel lucky to have her suckish life? Actually, now that I thought about it, that might have been exactly what she was trying to do. Nudge was trying to describe the worst childhood possible that someone had actually lived to make Jone feel not as bad about her own childhood. It actually made sense.

Angel, who was sitting next to Nudge, started explaining Erasers and other experiments to Jone and how and why they spent months chasing us and we spent months running away. Gazzy picked up after her with our whole "save the world mission" and how I was destined, created actually, to save the entire world. Before Iggy could begin the fascinating tale of our Antarctica, Hawaii, and even Africa adventures, Jone cut in with another question that caught us all, well except for Angel, off guard.

"What's it like to fly?" Jone asked. I guess it's not that hard to imagine a girl in a wheelchair who stares at a painting to cool off steam to wonder what it must be like to fly. A lot of people had asked us what it was like to fly. We just didn't think she would go and ask it out of the blue like that.

"Flying is… great." I said, starting the chain of feelings aroused from the flock.

"It's the greatest feeling in the world. It's like love at first sight mixed with witnessing a miracle mixed with freefalling. A lot of happiness and random different emotions you never knew existed. Senses of freedom and accomplishment and excitement. All that thrown together with wind." Nudge said, very sincerely and sensitively. It was deep, especially for Nudge.

To my surprise, Dylan spoke up next. He hasn't been alive for more than a year, and hasn't been flying for more than two months. What could he possibly have to say? "I agree with Nudge; flying does make you feel very free. But it's a hassle at first. You can't really do it unless you've had tons of time to practice, or a good instructor on the subject." Dylan looked at me, and smiled.

"It sounds amazing," Jone said. "I wish I could fly."

"Yeah, if I had a dollar for every time I heard _that_." I said, sounding more sarcastic then I intended to. "A lot of people want to fly, Jone. But let me tell you, unless you were born with wings, it's a very painful process. They eventually stitched wings onto Erasers, and it completely failed. Flying refrigerators would have been more successful."

"Oh," was her only response. "Tell me more about the School. Where is it? What's it look like?"

"It's in California," Angel said, "And it resembles a hospital, but with a scarier aura."

"It's not very fun." I finished for her, "the School isn't something we really like to talk about, though. Especially when trying to enjoy these amazing enchiladas!" I gave Iggy a thumbs up, even though he couldn't see it. It's the thought that counts, right?

Everyone agreed, making sounds of delight, applauding, and thanking him for his marvelous cooking skills. Iggy stood, bowed, then sat back down again.

That wasn't the last of the questions, though. Dinner time every night was the time Jone took to ask us every little question she could think of. She could think of a lot. Most of them were about the School, actually. I had no idea why she would want to know about the School, but you can't stop a curious mind from wandering, right?

For the time being, I let Jone sleep in my room. She took the bed, and I took the floor. Hey, she said she'd never slept in a bed, so it was the least I could do. As I helped her out of her wheelchair one night, Jone asked yet another question that completely took me by surprise. She was so curious.

"Max? How did you escape the School?" It was a touchy subject, I admit, but she seemed so intrigued with our lifestyle and how we grew up. "I mean, I don't want to pry, it's just, I-"

"It's okay, really," I said, giving what I hoped was a convincing smile. "We escaped a while back, with the help of one of the whitecoats. His name was Jeb," my voice cracked at his name. I hated him with such a burning passion that I couldn't even speak of him! Jeez, I'm pathetic. "He helped us escape, the details are a little fuzzy," Even though I could remember every vivid detail of that day, "but I know that we were all really happy to finally be free. It was a memorable day. Basically the turning point of our lives."

Jone nodded, taking in and memorizing every word, my every facial expression, every tone that came along with each word as if her life would depend on it one day.

"Are you sure you can't remember?" Jone asked, looking at me with puppy eyes. Puppy eyes I could handle no sweat. Bambi eyes were a whole different story.

"I'm sure," I replied with a small nod.

That night, all I thought about was Jone, and how happy she was staying here. I worried, though. What would happen to her? We couldn't keep her here forever. She couldn't leave once she got her strength back, there was no way she was ever getting out of that wheelchair. So… where would she go? Perhaps stay here until she decides to go back to that orphanage?

Yeah, like _that_ was ever going to happen. Even I wouldn't leave and go back with the way she described that place.

Then, something clicked. If she did want to go back to an orphanage, it didn't necessarily have to be that one! We could help her find a better, safer orphanage that she could live at! One that gets visitors all the time, so she has a better chance at being adopted. And one with good food, too. By the way she devoured all eight of those burritos, it looked like she would be eating like one of us for the rest of her life. That's what you get when you starve an orphan. They just eat anything in sight. It's like what the Gasman calls his "See food; Eat food" diet.

So that's what we'll do. We'll find Jone a better orphanage, or perhaps even a foster home, to live in. She'll be so happy! Why hadn't I thought of this earlier?

Because I was too preoccupied with getting Jone to feel welcome and settle in, I though, answering my own question. Making Jone happy now was more important than where she would go in the future. Jeez I was getting really motherly lately.

But one question still lingered in my self-conscience.

Will she _want _to leave?

**Reviews are appreciated! Review, and global warming will end, animals will stop being abused, Miley Cyrus will stop singing! We'll all be saved!**


	4. Surprise of a Lifetime

**Sigh… I'm really depressed.**

**1. I've only got three days left at middle school then I'm going to high school! I know I should be excited, but I'm not going to high school with all my friends from middle school because I got accepted into this really awesome private school. I'm going to miss everybody!**

**2. Writing this story without tearing up was hard, because this chapter is really sad.**

**Also thanks so much to fanficlover who wrote the most hilarious review ever! You should definitely get an account so I can respond!**

Max POV

"Max, I was thinking…" Jone said at breakfast the next morning. We had all pitched in to help make a pancake buffet for breakfast, but didn't bother to make anything else. So now we had four boxes of pancake mix baked into flat circular servings of yumminess on a giant plate in the middle of the table, ours for the taking.

I shoved a piece of my stack into my mouth as I said, "About what?"

"Well, um…" I was shocked. This was the absolute first time Jone had been at a loss for words since she's been with us. "I was just wondering if I were… capable… would you guys be, uh, willing to… take me in?"

There goes my plan. I figured she wouldn't want to go back to an orphanage. I knew this was coming. I should have said something faster. But then something that she said caught my attention.

"Oh, of coarse we wou-" Angel started to say almost immediately after Jone finished speaking, but I mentally told her to stop for a second.

"Wait. Jone, you know we'd take you in in a heart beat. We'd only known you for ten days and already you've become part of the family, practically. But what do you mean 'if you were capable'?" I asked skeptically.

Jone looked down at her hands, her fingers entwining with each other as if she were a little uncomfortable with what she was about to say. That was odd. She was usually comfortable talking to us.

Throughout the past week, Jone had used every second she was awake to try and get as close to everyone in the flock, even Dylan spent some time with her. She got closer to us than anyone ever had, and in record time too. We tried to not get attached to certain people, but I guess Jone was an exception. It was impossible not to like her. The people at her orphanage must have been the Devil incarnate and his evil minions come to life.

"Well, I thought that- if I- um…I thought that I might be able to… stay with you if I… had wings." She just barely murmured the last part so softly that I had trouble hearing her.

But I did. And so did everyone else. The clatter of forks against plates abruptly stopped. Everyone froze. I peeked at Fang. He was dead in his seat, completely taken off guard. Angel looked… guilty? No, not guilty. But she definitely wasn't shocked like everyone else. She knew this was coming, yet she refused to say anything about it. I didn't blame her.

I looked straight back at Jone. "Is that why you were asking us so many questions about the School the past week?"

Jone just duct her head, playing with her fingers again.

"Jone, are you trying to say that you want to go to the School and get wings just so you could stay with us?"

"It's not just about the wings!" She said, her voice raising a bit. "You've told me what the School can do. I think that, maybe, they could fix me entirely. If my visit were successful, I would be able to not just fly, but walk too!"

"Jone, even if they could fix your legs, and give you wings, it wouldn't just be a visit." Iggy said. "Number one, if they got the chance to turn you into one of their experiments, they would do everything in their power to not let you leave. Plus, being that you probably couldn't get there without our help, it would give them a chance to catch us as well. Number two, I wouldn't trust the School to fix you up in the first place. I mean, look at what those idiots did to my eyes!"

"I don't care if they do the worst job in the world. Anything to be able to walk again. And you guys said you've escaped the School a dozen times before. What makes you think you couldn't do it again?"

"The new robots they replaced the Erasers with." Angel replied. "Without proper training, they could rip you to shreds in a nanosecond. No offense."

"Plus," I added slowly, "Even if they did fix your legs, and give you wings, and you happened to escape, how do we know you'd be able to adjust to our life style? We don't just live here, you know. We're always ready to get up and go, leaving all of our things behind. Always ready to move. Always willing to eat anything, even if it was just crawling on the ground two minutes ago. And always ready to throw a punch if necessary."

"I'm a fast and willing learner. And I don't really carry many valuables anyway."

I sighed, sitting back in my chair. Was there any chance at convincing this girl?

_Nope. She's too stubborn. I can see it practically engraved in her mind. She won't take no for an answer. Even if we refuse to take her in, she'll still find her way to the School._ Angel said through my mind.

Just fantastic.

"Jone, are you absolutely sure about this?" Nudge asked. "I mean, if I had your choice, I would stay as human as possible. I see where you're coming from with the legs, but honestly… ugh. You actually have a shot at a normal life, one shot that none of us had. Take that shot. People will accept you for who you are, wheelchair or not."

"I never had a shot, Nudge." Jone said through gritted teeth, her voice quivering, "I will never be normal. No one will look at me normally for as long as I live, and that isn't much longer." She was tearing now, but she quickly wiped anything that was there away.

We were all quiet now. But I broke the silence.

"What exactly do you mean?" I said hesitantly. Suddenly everyone's appetite vanished, for no one would even look at their pancakes. And when the flock won't look at food, you know something's terribly wrong.

"The reason I ran away from the orphanage is… well, I got really sick. And a visitor saw how bad I was, and she wouldn't leave until I was healed, or she would sue the orphanage for allowing a child to die. No one knew how common it really was. I thought she would have adopted me, but no. She wasn't even there to adopt. She called a doctor, and he said I have a tumor or something. I ran away because… I'm dieing, Max. I have two more weeks to live."


	5. Did I hear you correctly?

**I am so sorry about the last chapter. If you didn't realize, I accidentally uploaded a chapter from my other story, so it went from Jone staying at their house to Max finding Fang. : / So, now it's fixed (thank God) and I hope there won't be anymore confusion.**

**Aww I'm listening to Angels by David Archuleta as I'm writing this. Now I'm sad again!**

**Review to help keep Jone alive!**

**BTW to fanficlover:**

**To get an account just go to the top of the webpage and click sign up. It's pretty self-explanatory from there. And if a car crash does not kill me then laughter will because your reviews are the best and funniest reviews in the entire whole damn world! Hahaha… okay back to my story… **

Max POV

…

Well shit…

Jone POV

I can't believe I told them. I worked so hard to keep it a secret! Wait to go, Jone, now you ruined the day, and possibly the rest of your two week life.

I wiped a tear from my cheek. Again. I hated it when I cried. It reminded me of the kids from the orphanage, laughing at me and calling me a baby. I taught myself to never show emotions, and here I was crying like a pathetic little kid in front of the people who had helped me.

But I was dieing. I didn't want to die, I wanted to live. I wanted to stay with the Flock, not that they would take me in now. I'm as good as dead. Literally. Why would they bother taking in a girl who they knew was going to die soon anyway?

My only hope to survive was the School. They won't even go near the School, let alone help me get into it…

Fang POV

I felt so horrible. I should have been more considerate to her. She's dieing for God's sake!

How did Max just know these things? How did she know to save a disabled girl who practically has her own expiration date? She didn't even know Jone when we met her, but that's not the point.

The point is, she want's to go to the hellhole we call the School because she thinks they can make her walk again. The more that I thought about it, the more it seemed like she just wanted them to try and save her life. Maybe that was her intention all along…

Angel POV

…This is so depressing…

All these miserable thoughts…

_How can she be dieing?…_

_I don't want her to leave…_

_This just really sucks…_

The tension in the room was killing me! I got up, and quickly left, trying hard not to cry. I quietly stormed up the steps to my room, and threw myself onto the bed.

The thoughts were still haunting me. Even my own devastated thoughts were haunting me. Maybe I should leave, go for a flight.

No. Max would kill me, and they'd be worried when they saw me gone. I'd be better off just laying here.

Iggy POV

This was probably the one moment in my life I was glad I couldn't see. I don't think this day could've sucked any more unless I actually saw everyone's distraught faces. Somehow I think it was less devastating not looking at anyone. Someone got up, and nearly ran upstairs. By their light footsteps I could tell it was Angel. Poor kid, having to listen to everyone's thoughts. I knew she really liked Jone. She always talked about how sincere and down to earth her thoughts were.

Jone was like a sister to all of us. And that was saying something, being that we didn't get to know people that well. Maybe we _should _consider helping her get to the School. If it would save her. I didn't want her to die. I remembered how Gazzy and I would teach her about grenades. She said she'd always wondered how they were set and launched, so we told her a little history. We never got to actually make one though. By the way things look, we probably never will…

Nudge POV

No…

No, no, NO!

How can this happen? Jone can't die! She just can't! I won't let her! I wanted to break down and cry, but I was stronger than that. Max taught us to never show weakness. But I don't know if I could hold it in…

Jone just couldn't die. I was suppose to go shopping with her! Maybe we could squeeze it in before her time… No. I can't think like that. I would go to the School and force them to save her if I had to. I knew for a fact that they had the ability to save her life. They couldn't say no. I won't let them…

The Gasman's POV

A tumor? She has a tumor? And she's dieing? DIEING? How can someone so awesome be dieing? She's the only human girl I've ever met that's actually interested in the making and usage of GP-25 grenade launchers. And she even wanted to make one! We had to find some way to save her. If sticking wings on a human kid, talking dog, and a couple hundred freakish wolf hybrids was possible, then saving a dieing girl's life should be cake…

Dylan POV

…

I didn't know what to think. Much less what to say. Jone was dieing. That was the truth.

We'd all miss her. Nothing else we could do…

One Week Later

Max POV

The past week had been… well it was great, but horrible. It took about one night for everyone to push aside what was to come, on the outside at least. I knew, even without Angel to tell me, that everyone was still aching over the thought on the inside. I also knew that, on the inside, some were kind of pissed that we weren't taking her to the School to save her right then and there. But we all decided to wait it out a little bit so that we could all spend a little more time with her, just incase the School actually makes things worse. I'm not saying we actually decided to take her there, but with me you never know. That was all on the inside. On the outside, it was obvious we all wanted to spend as much time with Jone as possible. Which only made us more attached to her.

Gazzy and Iggy got to make a grenade with her, and use it.

Nudge, Angel, and I took Jone shopping, which I actually enjoyed.

Fang and I taught her some self defense moves that you can do in a wheelchair. That girl can actually throw a punch.

Dylan sort of just tolerated her. He didn't plan anything special, didn't treat her any differently. I wanted to smack him on the head. It's as if he was just waiting for her to die so that we could just move on! I didn't want to give him the satisfaction, but it was just too complicated.

I wanted to help her. I really did. But there was no way in hell I would put her in their incapable, diabolical, scientist hands.

I got a soda can from the kitchen, then walked into the living room, where Jone was playing cards with Angel. I guess nobody warned her before hand about Angel's card playing.

"Hey," I said, sitting down on the couch next to her, "What're you playing?"

"Angel's teaching me how to play poker. Apparently I haven't lived until I've played for real." Her smile faltered a little. That joke just wasn't funny anymore. Out of all of us, I the one who was taking this the worst was Jone herself. I knew she was upset about her situation, but I think she was more upset about the fact that we're putting off taking her to the School.

"But she hasn't yet," Angel said, looking up at me from her hand of cards.

"Okay. But Jone, be careful playing Angel for real. I still owe her twenty bucks from our last game." I eyed Angel, and she smiled at me.

I opened my mouth to say something else when my soda can was literally sucked out of my hand. I looked toward the direction my soda went, and saw Nudge deviously holding it from across the room.

She giggled. "I'm learning how to do it long distances now."

Jone's eyes went wide. I guess we forgot to tell her about Nudge's power to attract metal. "Whoa! How did you do that?"

Nudge giggled again. "I can attract metal. It's another weird power that later on came along with the wings."

"Oh," Jone said. "I wonder what kind of power I would get if I got wings."

All went quiet, except for Dylan making the slightest snorting sound as he walked into the room. At first I thought he didn't think anyone heard him. That was probably his intention. But I heard him all right.

"Hey, Dylan," I said loudly, "If you've got something to say, say it loud and clear."

Dylan froze, shocked that anyone had noticed him. He turned to Jone, who was looking at him expectantly. He sighed. "Look, Jone, I really don't think the School could help you. You getting wings… it's just not as likely as you think."

"How would you know that? As far as I know, you weren't even made in the lab they grew up in." I wanted to hug her like there was no tomorrow.

Dylan raised his eyebrows at her. "I happen to know a lot more than you do about the labs we grew up in. They're all the same. And they're all one-track-minded. They don't just take in petty disabled girls and save their lives like hospitals." As soon as he said that, he bit his lip, afraid to say anymore.

That really struck a nerve. I looked at Jone, who was narrowing her eyes at him. Jone started to wheel toward him, probably intending to put some of those self-defense moves I taught her into action. I put my hand in front of her, and she looked up at me with a look that said _Let me go now._

I just shook my head at her.

_You and Dylan can't assume things you don't officially know, Max. Perhaps the School _can_ help her._

I gritted my teeth. _Well, hello Voice. Welcome back. _

_Taking chances is sometimes good. Maybe you should try taking some chances._

My brows came together in confusion. _Are you suggesting that I take Jone to the School? Do you really think they can possibly help her?_

As usual, no answer. Because my life can never be all "Hey Max, this is exactly what you have to do so listen up…". Life is just one big fortune cookie.

I thought about what my voice said. Well, the voice has never been wrong before, except for Dylan being my perfect other half. I mean, look at how well _that's_ going.

"Max, are you okay?" Nudge asked me. I realized that I'd been standing there for a while.

I cleared my throat.

"My Voice is back," I said, "and I think I have to listen to it."


	6. RitaBerrious

**Hey hey hey! Okay, so I've gotten lots of reviews from both people posting stuff on my review board and my friends who read my stories that I go to school with (you know who you are). So, I'm going to write this chapter so that it appeals to **_**everyone**_**. Some of you like Jone, and some of you don't…**

**You'll just have to read it and see what happens.**

Max POV

I was packing, trying to squeeze my emergency clothes down into the bottom of my backpack so that I can fit some extra food. As the morning sun broke in through my window, it bounced off something on my dresser and glared right into my eyes.

I picked up the small shiny object and moved it out of the sun before it blinded me. It was the ring Fang got me for our last "birthday". Something I should have worn a lot more often. At first, I never took it off, but it started to get in the way of things. Certain things that would snap the ring in half if I wore it. I put it on, admiring the beauty of it. You really have to enjoy the little things in life. Otherwise, you get nowhere.

As I stuffed small boxes into my backpack, I heard the tiny squeaking of a certain wheelchair roll into my room.

"Hey, Jone," I said, my eyes glued to my backpack as if staring at it would make it hold everything I needed, "Are you finished packing already?"

I turned around to see Jone holding her backpack.

A backpack that held absolutely nothing.

"Max, I can't do this." Her eyes screamed remorse. My brows came together in confusion. Wasn't she the one who wanted to do this in the first place?

I felt bad that it took not letting Dylan have the satisfaction of being right to finally realize that we had to take Jone to the School. No, I really didn't want to go back to that prison where needles were forced into our skin. But I did want to help Jone, and I knew that the School could do just that. We were just going to get in, fix Jone, and get out. Simple as that. I hoped.

"Max, I'm sorry. I realized that I'm asking way too much of you guys." Jone said, wheeling herself next to my bed. I sat down on it so that we were at semi-eye level.

I sighed. "Yes, Jone, you are asking way too much of the Flock."

Her shoulders drooped a little, withdrawing into her chair.

"But," I continued, "unlike most people we meet, you aren't expecting anything from us, and you aren't demanding us. Which is exactly why we have to do it."

She sat up straight in her chair again, smiling a bit. I could tell she didn't like having people upset with her.

I thought over our situation once more, thinking about what we were getting ourselves into. It was now nineteen days after we found Jone. About five days until she… well five days until _it _happens. Hopefully we can stop _it_ from happening.

If only we could do this without sticking wings on Jone. She could be normal for once. But she just would not see reason. She wanted wings. That was her final word.

"Look, Jone, I thought about your argument you gave us that one day at breakfast. Most of what you said made sense, and the rest was right. Angel was also right. I don't think it would be as easy to escape if they captured us, but we will do everything we can. I know someone who works for the School who might be able to help you, without getting us caught." I said, choosing my words very carefully.

"Who is it?" Jone asked.

I grimaced on the inside by the thought of who we had to go to.

"Jeb Batchelder."

"Okay, guys, you ready to move out?" I looked over the Flock who were sitting in the living room with their individual backpacks. I looked at each of them. And stopped at Nudge. She wasn't looking up at me, or even looking down. She was staring at nothing. Whenever she did that, it meant she was in really deep thought. She was doing that a lot lately.

"Nudge, you okay?" I asked softly. She looked up at me and nodded, giving a quite convincing smile. Nothing really convinced me anymore. While her smile said she was fine, her eyes told me she was dreading what was to come. They all were. I could just tell.

I looked at Fang. He nodded, telling me that it was all good. I smiled at him, and he smirked back. It was moments like these that held us together.

I did a quick head count, then noticed Dylan was missing.

I sighed through my teeth. There goes my good mood. "Dylan, where are you?" I screamed loud enough so that he could hear me no matter where he was in the house.

He appeared out of the hallway, with no backpack in hand, looking like he just woke up.

"Well, where on earth are you going?" I asked. "Because it really doesn't look like you're coming with us."

"I'm not." He mumbled tiredly.

I raised my eyebrows at him. "You're not? Hmm, let's see. Last time I checked, this flock stays together no matter what. And, unless I've missed something, I believe you are apart of this flock. I mean, hey, if you want to leave and lead your own life that has nothing to do with us, be my guest. But as long as you're with us, we stick together."

"Max, if I don't agree with or even want to take part in what you're doing, why should I go?"

Was he stupid? Did he not hear what I just said to him two and a quarter seconds ago?

"I don't think you should go," he continued. "It's not safe for Jone, and it's certainly not safe for the Flock."

"Oh, and do you all of a sudden make the decisions now, too?" I asked snidely, "I think we should go. It will work out. I'm sure of it."

He didn't move.

"Fine," I snapped, "you stay here, but when it turns out we don't come back because we had to make a snap decision again, don't come crying to us saying we deserted you. I warned you." I hated leaving a member of the flock behind - again. But people really needed to start trusting me when I said I was sure everything would work out.

I opened the front door, and got butterflies in my stomach (possibly for the first time) knowing where we were going. I shook it off. I'd went over it in my mind a hundred thousand times in the last couple of days. If everything went smoothly, nothing should go wrong.

On the way, we stopped every so often to give whoever was carrying the wheelchair and whoever was carrying Jone a break. Some of those stops were overnight rests in caves and in woods since Jone couldn't sleep in a tree. I was surprised when Fang offered to carry the wheelchair first, then carry Jone right after that. Jone stayed quiet generally the entire way. I guessed she was afraid of being a burden. That must have been a habit of hers.

As we neared the border of California, we took another break at a deserted gas station/what looked like an ice cream parlor. I knew it was deserted because:

1. There were absolutely no people or cars except for a blue pick-up truck and a small muddy volts wagon parked in the front.

2. It was located in the middle of freaking nowhere. Just how we liked it.

We landed in the woods behind it, then walked around to the front. As we circled to the front, I noticed that the ice cream parlor was actually a Rita's.

"Who wants Italian ices?" I asked, everyone cheered. It had to be at least eighty-five degrees. A Rita's ice was just what each of us needed.

I stepped up to the window where a very perky woman in her mid-thirties was waiting. Waiting for what? She was working in the only source of civilization within fifty miles of the California border!

"Hello, welcome to Rita's!" She probably practiced that sentence a thousand times a day in front of the mirror. Nudge told me her order, then I decided mine.

"Hi," I said hastily, "I would like two large Chocolate Chocolate Chip ices, one large Twisted Melon, one large RitaBerrious, and one Key Lime." I said, ordering for myself and Nudge. Nudge had decided to get three different flavors to see which one she liked best and also what they would taste like blended together.

"What size would you like the Key Lime?" She asked.

I gave her a look that clearly said _What do you think?_

"Large, got it."

Twelve minutes later, yes I was in fact counting, she came back with my and Nudge's orders. I handed the ices down one at a time to Nudge, then took mine and handed the lady the cash. I stepped out of the way to let Iggy order for himself and the Gasman, then Fang order for Angel and Jone. We ordered in groups a lot, that way we wouldn't mix up each other's orders. We tried ordering all our food as one big order once; it was a disaster.

I set my ices down at the rectangular table set out next to the Rita's, then pulled another table over so that it made one big table for seven people.

While I had my Chocolate Chocolate Chip ices and Nudge had her mixed flavors, Iggy had a couple Florida Orange ices, Gazzy had a Pina Colada ice, Fang had two Wild Black Cherry (_black _cherry, of coarse) ices, Angel had one Green Apple ice, and Jone had one Root Beer ice. Of coarse, Jone's medium ice was the smallest out of all of ours.

"Be careful with that ice, Nudge. Don't spill it on anybody." I said, watching Nudge holding that ice practically sideways as she talked to Jone about God only knows what.

"Oh, please, Max. I would never- oops."

Iggy hissed as a cold blob of Nudge's RitaBerrious ice fell onto and stained his already dirty white T-shirt.

"What the hell is all over me?" Iggy snapped, trying to wipe what he couldn't see off his shirt with a napkin.

"Uh… the one thing that Nudge could never possibly spill on anybody." I eyed Nudge accusingly as the table burst into laughter.

Like I said before. You really do have to appreciate the little things in life before they fly right by and out of your reach. Metaphorically, I mean.

As soon as everyone's tongues were rainbow colored, especially Nudge's, we packed up and took off once again. This time, Nudge was carrying the wheelchair (as punishment for spilling fruity coldness onto Iggy's shirt) and I was carrying Jone.

That was our last stop until we our destination, for we were approaching Death Valley (can you believe the irony in that name?).


	7. Welcome back

**Okay I'm ganna make this first part quick.**

**Ohai96, Jone can be as flabernackle as you want her to be.**

**Nathalie-Cullen-Black, the only reason your stories have fifteen reviews in under five chapters each is because you started both of them back in May. I started mine in **_**this**_** month. You had a lot more time to get that many reviews than I did.**

**And now, I have something to share. For art class a couple weeks ago, we had to make boxes with a drawing on each side. My friend made a box with each member of the Flock on it. She brought it to dance class cause she didn't want it anymore, so my other friend takes the box and rips it to shreds because she's sick and tired of my friend and I always talking about Maximum Ride in dance class. It was very interesting… and violent. Haha.**

**Okay, back to the story.**

Max POV

The deserted lands of California were right below us. For a moment, I forgot why we were even here. I just let the wind consume me, flowing and whispering through my feathers. Wow, poetic much?

The buildings of the School came into view. Even though it looked completely normal on the outside, I knew there was nothing normal on the inside.

A weird feeling in my stomach aroused, and I had actually considered turning around for a second. Maybe Dylan was right, maybe this was too dangerous for the flock, I thought. Ugh, why should I even listen to Dylan? Even when I tell him I know what I'm doing, he still has to open his big mouth.

I then thought about what Fang said the other night when we slept in a cave.

Sit back and relax while I enter this flashback.

There was a campfire, of coarse, crackling quietly in the middle of the cave. The flock was asleep on the floor, and Jone was sleeping in her wheelchair.

I was half asleep lying on the floor as well, my head resting on Fang's shoulder. Apparently, he wasn't asleep.

"Max," he whispered, "you awake?"

"I am now." I said, chuckling slightly. "What's up?"

"Nothing, I'm just… worried." He said so silently that I almost couldn't hear him. I sat up, and he did the same, so that I could look him in the eyes. His deep, dark, beautiful eyes… I snapped back into reality just in time to answer him.

"What could you possibly be-" I stopped myself, realizing that there was a lot to be worried about. "You shouldn't worry. Everything will be fine." I really didn't know that for sure, but I didn't know what else to say at the moment.

"I don't know, Max. How do you know we can trust her?" I realized he was no longer looking at me. I followed his gaze to look at Jone's peaceful, harmless form.

"Jone? Why on earth would we not trust Jone? She's disabled. She's not that much of a threat."

He shook his head. "What if she's lying? What if she's just luring us into a trap? Think about it. We find her injured in the middle of the forest with a wheelchair, and she claims she was just rolling through? How could she even get _into _that forest on a wheelchair? Someone could have put her there, and all she had to do was play the part."

This was the most Fang's ever said since we found Jone. Had he been thinking this theory up the entire time?

"Fang, there's no way she could be working for the School. I had Angel scan her mind over a dozen times since the second she wheeled in our door. Trust me, she's harmless. And I have Angel to prove it." I met his eyes once again, and saw something flash in them. I didn't know what it was exactly, but I did know what it meant.

"No." I whispered, "You can't honestly think that Angel's one of them too? How can you even say that?"

"I didn't say anything." He snarled.

"You didn't have to." I whispered loudly. I looked at my flock, checking to see if I woke anyone up. I waited a couple more seconds, then started again, my voice one notch lower. "I know Angel hasn't been… well like she use to be. But she's a clever, devious, _mind controlling_ little kid. Don't you think that if she were working for the School, she would have gotten us there already? And with a better, more full-proof plan than this? Some members of the flock are expecting me to pack up and turn around saying that there is no way in hell I'm going to willingly take us back there. And believe me, I would. But that's only if I didn't know how things would turn out. Right now, I do. And if everybody just does what they're told, nothing will go wrong."

Fang eyed me for a couple seconds more. Oh, God, don't tell me he thinks _I'm _working for the School now too! Jeez, he's so paranoid.

Just to cool the tension, I leaned over and kissed him sweetly. When I leaned back again, he was a centimeter from smirking. I laid back down, satisfied, and went to sleep.

Back in present time, I was mentally preparing for the next few hours or so. I had to find Jeb before anything. That sounded easy right? But there were a few things you have to consider.

Did I know if he was presently in the School? No. Did I know where he lived? No. Could I just waltz into the School and hope I get lucky? Yup.

Pretty high chances, right? I didn't think so either.

I just hoped he was there so that I didn't have to use plan B.

We landed right in front of the School. Perfectly visible and vulnerable.

I know what you must be thinking. Max, are you crazy? Why would you just bring the flock right up to the whitecoats? This could totally get you guys caught and killed!

That's exactly what we expected. And three… two… one…

"There they are!" I heard a whitecoat scream from inside the building. thank God for our super sensitive hearing, or else we wouldn't have been prepared.

"It's the bird children! Get them before they escape again!" Another whitecoat said.

I lunged slightly, preparing for action. "Okay, guys, you remember the plan?"

Everyone nodded, not speaking any of it just in case. Jone had a game face on, leaning forward in her wheelchair. Nudge gripped the handles of Jone's wheelchair with fury, ready to push her past anything and everything. I was so proud of them both.

About two dozen whitecoats and twenty new experiments and creations I didn't know about came running towards us, and the plan went into action.

Yes, I had a plan. I always have a plan. You should know that by now. And what is this ingenious and amazing plan that I did not tell you about when you were all thinking I was crazy for coming here? Yeah, like I would tell you. For all I know, you could be a whitecoat, or someone working for the School!

I had been forming a plan since a couple days after Jone told us she was dieing. I telepathically told Angel about it the day before we left. How did I know Angel wasn't actually luring us into a trap with Jone's assistance like Fang suggested? Because I was the one who came up with this plan. Every little detail was mine. Even the grouping and who was taking Jone in and all that jazz was mine. I told Angel before hand so that she could telepathically fill the rest of the flock in when we were approaching the School. The rest of the Flock didn't know about any of this until about twenty minutes ago.

About two and a half seconds passed when I sprinted forward, head on for the whitecoats, then snapped out my wings and flew right over them. The rest did the same. Nudge was barely holding Jone and her chair up, but she managed. We flew dangerously low to the whitecoats. Nothing seemed to be attacking us from above or below. Where were all the M-geeks and flyboys? Where were anybody, for that matter? I wasn't familiar with any living creature below us besides the whitecoats. We swooped down and around them, making them duck and cover as if we were going on the offensive. Perfect.

One guy pointed a gun at me, and when he pulled the trigger a fast moving net raced towards me. I easily dodged it, letting it fall onto two whitecoats on the ground behind me. The same thing happened about six more times, but the nets failed to catch any of us. As planned, Fang and Angel banked downwards and crashed through two individual windows on the left side of the School. It must have really hurt because those windows were thick. But they got through. Nudge flew Jone into the open window Fang went through.

_Okay, Max, we're inside. Phase one complete. Phase two starts now. Fang, Nudge and Jone are okay, I see them down the hallway now. Keep distracting. The halls look clear so far._ Angel thought to me from the inside.

Iggy, Gazzy and I were still in the air, distracting as many people as we could. As a bunch of whitecoats barked orders at certain experiments to go in after them, I swooped down again, stopping them dead in their tracks. My wings beat powerfully, practically blowing everyone remotely close to the front door away.

I landed heavily in front of the, at a loss for a better word, mutant freaks and put on the scariest face I could muster.

"Do any of you know where to find Jeb Batchelder?" I asked harshly.

They looked at each other, then at me again as if they couldn't understand a word I was saying. Well, they understood that whitecoat, so they had to have understood me. As I stared at them, I realized just how far the whitecoats really had gone with their crazy, megalomaniac schemes and experiments.

In front of me stood not just experiments, but pure monsters. There was a man with, no lie, light blue tinted skin, an arm that looked like airbag had blone up inside it, and puffy eyes that were so swollen shut it looked like he could only see out of slits. There was a young girl with what looked a fish tail attached to the end of a monkey tail, black patches all over her skin, a cat's features morphed into her face, and retractable claws on her fingers and toes. There was also a teenage boy with metal fists permanently replacing his hands and wheels replacing his feet, not to mention the branched veins popping out of his skin in various places of his body. He looked like he had some sort of electronic disease. There were plenty more, but I ignored them, too disgusted to even look them in the eyes (mostly because one of them _had_ no eyes).

Realizing that these creatures weren't going to be any help, I stormed past them, knocking out anyone - or anything - in my way until I could get to a whitecoat.

Seeing one up close was petrifying. Especially seeing that she still had test tubes filled with a mysterious purple liquid stuffed in her coat pocket. I pushed the test tubes out of my vision, and took a fistful of her stupidly perfect white collar.

"Where is Jeb Batchelder?" I demanded. I first intended to track him down without being noticed inside the School, but with closer examination of that plan… well let's just say that I knew it wouldn't work out.

"I- I don't know who you're talking about." She stuttered, attempting to be stern. That failed.

"Don't lie to me. Jeb is one of the most well-know scientists here," I spat the word scientists, hoping to show her the hatred I showed for them, "Either you're lying and know where he is, or you're just a newbie nitwit who can't remember who your boss is."

She rolled her eyes and went _pshh_. "Please, even though he may act like it, Jeb is _not_ my boss-" She literally bit her lip, as if that would stop her from saying anymore. I smiled triumphantly.

"So you _do_ know him. Mind telling me where he is?"

"I would never tell you." Oh, yes you would. I grabbed her arm and twisted it around her back, then held the other one in place with my other arm. It was a simple procedure, one that I could have easily gotten out of, much less scream in pain from it. Which is exactly what she did. Wimp.

"Okay! Okay," she screamed, "He's in section C in room 102 the last time I saw him. He was working on some new creation with wings." Figures.

I memorized every word, then let her go after one last twist of her arm. She fell to the ground whimpering and clutching her superficially bruised arm, and I thought the directions to Angel and told her to meet me there.

She confirmed it, and I waved for Iggy and the Gasman to follow. The whitecoats didn't even notice us going inside! They were too concerned with helping the creations and other whitecoats get out of the nets they practically trapped themselves in. Iggy threw one last bomb at them, making them scatter even more. I have to say, I didn't think this first part would be so easy. I did, however, figure the second part wasn't going to be as easy.

We tore through the halls, looking for the section of the building the whitecoat said Jeb would be in. You see, Iggy, Gazzy and I were suppose to distract as many whitecoats as possible while Angel, Fang, and Nudge got Jone to Jeb. We didn't all go together because if my group was outside distracting everybody, the halls would be clearer for Angel's group and there would be less people to stop them on their way to find Jeb. I hoped that Jeb would just run outside with those other whitecoats after hearing we were back, but I couldn't get so lucky.

We rounded a corner and found Nudge and Jone standing nervously outside an open door that led into room 102.

"Did you guys find him?" I asked hastily as I came to an abrupt halt in front of them.

"No. We just checked in there," Nudge said, pointing to the empty room. "I guess he must have heard and ran out to find us right away. His experiment I'm guessing was taken back to it's dog crate, or escaped. It looks like he just got up and left."

Hearing the dog crate part sent a shiver down my spine. I hated the thought of someone living inside one of them. But there was no time for a rescue mission right now. I peeked in the room. There was a counter with spilled purple liquids - just like the one I saw in that whitecoat's pocket - all over it, a couple chairs shoved in the corner and knocked over, and a syringe containing more purple liquid placed on a bare metal cart. I wondered what that purple liquid was… no time.

Had to find Jeb.

"Where are Angel and Fang?" Gazzy asked. I hadn't even noticed they weren't there. I suddenly felt guilty for not paying attention to my flock.

As if on cue, Angel raced around the same corner we just came down, panting like she was running for her life.

"Angel! What happened? And where's Fang?"

It took her a minute to catch her breath - a minute that seemed to take all of eternity - until she finally spoke.

"I heard Jeb's voice right down the hallway! Fang and I went to find him, and Fang told Nudge to stay here in case he came back. I'm guessing he didn't. I lost him for now - but there's a bigger issue at hand."

"What?" Iggy asked impatiently. I looked at Angel intently, as if what she was about to say was life or death for Jone.

It was life or death all right. But not for Jone.

"They got a new security system. Those creations that poured outside when we arrived weren't just experiments. Some of them found us, and I got away. But Fang's missing!"


	8. Run and Seek

**I'm really sorry I haven't updated in a while! I was at camp all last week and couldn't get my hands on a laptop. : ( **

**And fanficlover, at first I didn't know what you were asking when you wanted to know how to PM. So I sent you a private message telling you how to private message. Haha. I know. Really stupid move. Anyway, if you go to the review board and go down to where I put a review explaining the chapter mix up, there's a small speech bubble in the upper right hand corner. Some reviews won't have those because they aren't signed by a logged in account name. Click on the little bubble, and the rest is easy to figure out.**

Max POV

It's my fault…

It's all my fault.

Fang's missing… because of me.

Jone might die… because of me.

My flock is in serious danger… because of me.

I wanted to crawl under a rock and weep away all my worries. But I knew I was stronger than that. I had to keep it together for my flock. I swallowed all my tears, and turned all my grief into anger.

"C'mon, guys. First, we're going to find Fang. Next, we're going to find Jeb. Then, we're going to leave, and Jone will have working legs, and wings." I walked down the hall, rounded the corner, and punched the nearest whitecoat in the face.

No more mercy.

Dylan POV

The flock's been gone for days. I would have been worried if I wasn't so pissed off.

Max needs to learn that she's not the only one making decisions anymore. The kids are growing up, becoming mature. She needs to see their needs and wants. Including mine.

I was apart of the flock too, was I not? I had wings. I flew. I lived with them. They should listen to me. Not one of them, not even Fang or Iggy, stopped Max to even consider listening to me.

Well, I wouldn't expect Fang to. But maybe Iggy or even one of the younger ones.

As I slowly walked the hallway connecting everyone's room, deep in thought, I saw an extremely small black object sitting against the wall on the floor. Anyone would have missed it, it was so small, but my raptor vision caught it.

I picked it up with gentle hands, looking it over. It looked like a… camera.

A very tiny camera. I looked into the room I found it next to. It was Max and Jone's room. But just because I found it next to their room didn't mean it belonged to one of them. Did it?

I took the small camera, played with it in my hands a bit, then out of nowhere, an even smaller chip popped out of the side. What did I push? The chip was about the size of the camera's longest side. Could this be a memory chip? I was going to go with yes.

It was too small to put into the laptop. I thought back to the days when Iggy would teach me how to use the laptop.

"_And this opening on the side here," Iggy said, pointing to a wide, narrow opening, "is where you insert memory cards. Like this one." Iggy held up the square, thin blue memory card that came in Angel's camera._

"_There are smaller memory cards like this, called chips. You put those in stuff like cell phones. But they don't go directly into the laptop. First they have to go into a larger card that will send the data from the chip into the computer." Iggy continued, now holding a grey card with a small slim opening on the bottom. Iggy stuck the chip into the bottom of the card, then shoved the card into the computer._

That must have been what this chip was. But, it didn't come from a cell phone. It came from a camera. Maybe this was just a special camera. I grabbed the card from Iggy's room. The chip fit perfectly.

Once I inserted the card into the laptop, a window popped up. It read a bunch of files with videos on it. I clicked on any random one. It took a minute for Windows Media Player to load, but it was eventually running and playing the video.

The screen showed a forest. I turned the volume up, and I heard someone panting. Someone was traveling in the forest. Then, the camera was facing the ground. Whoever had the camera had fallen. All I could hear was yelling, yelling for help. I fast forwarded the video until the camera was off the ground. It showed… Max.

Max was standing right in front of the camera. And soon after that, Fang. I stopped the video, then clicked on a different one.

This one was of our house. It showed the flock sitting in the living room. Nudge looked up from a magazine she was reading, and said "Hi Jone,".

Holy mother… It looked like the camera was filming while attached to Jone's wheelchair. She was recording us, and it must have fallen off.

Which means she was probably working for someone. Which means I was right.

I was right! Ha! Max should've listened to me. They all should have.

I took the chip out of the card, closed down the laptop, and shoved the card into my pants pocket. When I returned the chip to the camera, I immediately grabbed my jacket and began to put it on.

"Where do you think you're going?" Total asked from the kitchen. Damn. I forgot about him.

"The flock's in danger. I have to go help them." I replied, stepping into my sneakers.

"Gee, you'd think you would have thought about that a little sooner. If you knew Max, they're either at the School now or coming home."

"That's exactly why I have to go. They're in trouble. Jone is a traitor." I snarled the last part. I didn't realize before just how angry I was.

"Well, wait! You can't just leave Akila and me here alone!"

"You're a grown dog. I'm sure you can take care of yourself. Just don't brake anything, kay?"

Before he could argue further, I ran out the door, and flew out into the sky.

Jone was going down, and I was going to serve Max a huge bowl of "I told you so!"

Hey, I'm less than a year old. I have a right to be immature.

Okay, I flew pretty fast. Not as fast as Max, but faster than most of the younger kids. Since the younger ones couldn't fly all that fast, then they couldn't have traveled that fast. Plus, they must have taken a bunch of rests and stuff. If I fly at my fastest speed, taking as few stops as possible, then I should make it there in just a couple of hours. They should still be there by then… right?

Max POV

We had snaked and fought our way through the highly hated School until we found the exact hallway we started in. Holy shiz… did we really just go in a complete circle?

Yes, yes we had.

And you know what else? Just as things seem like they can't get any more complicated, we lose Jone.

"Where did you last see her?" I asked impatiently at Nudge, who was in charge of keeping an eye on Jone for the time being.

"She was right in front of me as we turned the corner, and then she was gone! I don't know how she got away from me! I swear!" Nudge said, putting her hands up defensively.

I cursed under my breath. I started down the hallway to my left, a different route from before, hoping to lead us to a more promising destination. The entire time I worried what could have possibly happened to Jone. What if she got lost? What if she was injured?

What if she was taken by whitecoats?

_What if she wasn't?_

I nearly jumped in mid-run at my Voice. I was about to think of some snarky comment about how horrible it's timing was, when I thought of a better question.

_What do you know about what happened to Jone? Do you know where she is? _I tried keeping my thoughts as calm and patient as possible, even though the Voice knew I most definitely was not calm nor patient at the moment.

_I know that she wasn't taken, and she didn't get lost._

Okay, now I was thinking that the Voice was screwing with me.

_If she wasn't kidnapped or lost, then what could have possibly happened to her? Did she magically start walking and decided to leave? Did she randomly drop dead?_

That would have killed my day.

I was almost surprised to hear the Voice actually answer me directly, for the second time in a row. I was on a roll. _Did it ever cross your mind that maybe she willingly left you? Perhaps to seek something out herself?_

This time, I did freeze in mid-run. My eyes went wide, and my breathe caught in a gasp. Jone left the group. She wanted to find someone on her own. Someone to fix her. She decided that she wouldn't walk or fly or even possibly wheel out of there at the pace we were going. She knew that finding Fang went straight to the top of our To Do List, so she left us with her own To Do List.

Damn it!

I was still curious at how my Voice new exactly why Jone left us, but I pushed it aside. There's a much, much bigger issue at hand.

"Jone left the group. Willingly." I saw traces of agitation and pure shock cross each of their faces. "I think she went to find someone to help her faster."

"We should split up." the Gasman suggested. I was surprised that, of all flock members, Gazzy would encourage us splitting up. He was always one for the "Stick together" plan.

I nodded. "Angel, Gazzy, you come with me to find Fang. Nudge and Iggy, you go to find Jone. Once we've found our person, don't hesitate to worry about where the other group is. Find Jeb. We'll all catch up eventually."

Without another word, we split up into our groups, going in two different directions. I led my group ahead down the hall we were just going down. Nudge and Iggy went in the opposite direction, going back down the hallway we came from.

_Okay, Angel, I need you to be all ears for Fang's thoughts. I'm counting on you. _I thought to Angel. She didn't respond, but I saw comprehension in her determined blue eyes.

As we came to a fork in the hall, and took out a couple more whitecoats, Angel beckoned us to follow her down the hallway to the right.

_I heard a bunch of curses and swear words directed at whitecoats and experiments. It sounded like Fang._

I smiled. That was exactly what Fang would've been thinking if he were caught. They must've not taken him far. Perhaps this would be easier than I thought.

Angel stopped, yards away from the end of the hallway. "That's weird." She said.

Perhaps this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought.

"What's weird?" Gazzy asked, "Do you hear Fang?"

Angel nodded. "Oh, yeah. I hear Fang. But I hear someone else, too."

What the hell was she talking about? Was Jeb with him?

_Not Jeb, Max. Far from it, actually. _Angel thought to me. Far from it?

As we turned the hall, I heard grunting and crashing coming from one of the rooms. I skidded to a halt, and looked inside to find Fang tied tightly to a hospital bed, complete shock in his dark eyes, two experiments unconscious on the floor, and Jone sitting next to them, panting and sweaty.


	9. Timing Sucks

**Sorry it's taking me so long to update! My summer's more busy than I thought it would be.**

**Okay, I've got nothing else to say right now so I'm ganna go straight to the story!**

Dylan POV

Flying non stop for hours at your fastest speed is no walk in the park. It started drizzling, so at the speed I was going, the drops were hitting my face like a million tiny needles. I had to be close to the border of California by now. I was tired, hungry, aching. I had to stop soon. I'd never be able to take down Jone and those whitecoats like this.

I landed heavily. The drizzle became stronger, and soon I was nearly drenched. I was on an empty road next to a forest. Up ahead in the fog, I could just barely make out a few small buildings.

I walked/jogged to the buildings, looking like a regular kid who got lost in the rain. I saw a gas station and some kind of parlor. The gas station seemed dead, so I ran to the parlor, hopeful for some form of life.

I rapped on the window. Nothing.

I rapped again, harder this time. A woman around thirty-five came to the window, and opened it a crack.

"Oh, dear. You look so cold! Why don't you come in here? It's at least warmer in here." She said.

At first I didn't know if I could trust her. She didn't look like she wanted to rip my throat out. But looks can be very deceiving. I peeked in the window behind her. It was just an ordinary ice cream parlor.

I went on high alert and stepped through the doorway on the side of the building. It was pretty cold in there, but she was right when she said it was warmer than out there.

"So," the woman started, "what were you doing all the way out here on your own?" At first I thought she was being snoopy, and was about to tell her it was none of her business. Then I realized that she was only attempting small talk, and that I could just lie.

"Um, I was camping with… the boy scouts… and we were doing a scavenger hunt when I… uh… got lost." The boy scouts? Did I really just say that? Did they even do scavenger hunts?

"Oh what a shame! You must've gotten caught in the rain."

I decided to just go with it. "Yep, that's exactly what happened." While I was sitting there, I figured I might as well get some information from this lady. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, what state am I in right now?"

Without a second thought or even a blink, she answered with ease, "You're right over the border of California, darling." Excellent.

I ate some Italian ice (it was Rita's!), thanked the lady, then took off again. Lucky for me, the rain went back down to a light drizzle.

Now that I was rested and full, I was able to go at my fastest speed again, if not faster than I was going before. I've only been at it for a few hours, and I was almost there. The flock will be impressed.

Max POV

I sat, pissed at myself, Jeb, and anyone else who dared pass me a glance. I picked at my nails, frustrated with the situation. How did I end up back here? I swore to myself and to the flock that this wouldn't happen again.

In case you're wondering what happened in the last two hours, let me sum it up for you.

I'm in a dog cage.

A freaking _dog cage_!

And how did I get inside a dog cage you ask? Well, let me go back a bit.

We had just found Fang, and Jone, in a room with two unconscious experiments on the floor.

"Fang! Jone? How did- What happened?" I asked frantically.

"Max! Thank God! You'll never believe what just went on in here!" Fang said with more emotion in his voice than I've heard in a long time.

"I think I'll believe it when I hear it. Both of you, start explaining." I said, waving Angel and Gazzy inside. I went to Fang, and starting undoing his straps. It took a minute, for they were really tight, but I got to hear Jone's explanation while doing it.

"Okay, so when I heard Fang was missing, I thought I should go and find him." Jone started.

"You could have at least told us what you were doing!" I said, my voice rising. I immediately lowered it in fear of a whitecoat finding us. "Jone, you scared us half to death! What on earth were you thinking?" I finished untying the strap on Fang's right arm, then moved around the bed to start the other strap as Angel and Gazzy helped untie the straps on his ankles.

"I was thinking you wouldn't have let me help, and that you would've said it was too dangerous for me." Jone said simply, dropping her gaze to the floor.

My hands froze as I realized she was right. I would have said no. I would have had at least one or two of us stay with her and out of danger while the rest of us went to look for Fang and Jeb.

I heard scuffling of sneakers running down the hall, and I braced myself to fight off a whitecoat or some disgusting experiment, but relaxed when I saw it was only Nudge and Iggy.

"Jone! There you are! And… Fang? Max? What the-" Nudge exclaimed, before she saw the experiments on the floor, "What happened?"

I finished untying Fang just as Angel and Gazzy finished with his ankles. Fang hopped off the bed, and started piling the unconscious experiments onto it.

"That's exactly what we were just figuring out." I said. "Jone left us to look for Fang."

"Okay," Nudge said slowly, taking in the destroyed room, "And what about the beaten up experiments? Did we miss out on the action?"

Jone shook her head, "No, they were already unconscious when Max, Angel and the Gasman arrived. I took them out." And the best part was, she said it as if it were the simplest, most normal thing in the world. We, however, did not.

"You did what?" Iggy said, a little too loudly. I realized where things were going, and I quickly shut the door tight and locked it, then put a chair under the handle so that no one was getting in. Someone was bound to figure out where we were soon, and someone was bound to come after and attack us.

"I took them out. You know, beat them up? Knocked them unconscious?" Jone said.

"We know what 'took them out' means," Nudge interrupted. By now, we could definitely hear people storming down the hall. "What we want to know is _how!_"

Now, people were pulling at the handle and banging on the other side of the door. I pushed the chair tighter under the handle. No one was getting in while we were here, at least not until we sort this out. Jone couldn't have actually taken on those experiments, could she?

_She did, Max, _Angel thought to me. _I can see the entire thing replaying in her mind. She used the self defense you and Fang taught her._

Wow. I didn't think she would actually use those skills one day.

Answering Nudge's question, Jone said, "I used the self defense moves Max and Fang taught me. Fang was right, using your peripheral vision to find objects to use as weapons really does come in handy!" Jone smiled at the last part.

"You should have seen her, Max. I will never again underestimate physical disabilities." Fang said.

I know what you're thinking, _Max, how did you get in a dog cage?_

Well, I'm getting to that.

We strapped down the experiments so that they couldn't get out when they woke up, then looked for another way out since the way we came in was out of the question. It sounded like half the building was trying to get in on the other side of that door.

We started moving around the items in the room when Angel pointed out an air vent in the bottom corner of the wall.

It looked big enough to hold each of us, but there was no way Jone could wheel through it. We sat Jone on a stool, folded up her wheelchair, and put it in the vent to see if it would fit. It did. Okay, so we would crawl through it one at a time and see where it would take us.

We sent Nudge through first. It would be Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Iggy, Jone (she said she could drag herself along, but we were putting her in the middle so that someone could be there in case she needed a little push), then Fang, and finally me pushing her folded wheelchair.

After Nudge crawled in about three feet, we sent Gazzy in after her. When Angel was about to enter the vent, I heard the lock on the door turning, then a rattling noise.

Oh no. They were getting through.

"Go, now!" I said, pushing Angel into the vent. I said screw it with the order, and sent Jone in right after Angel.

But it was too late. I honestly didn't think it would take this long for them to brake down the door (they're scientists! Shouldn't they be smart enough to not bother sparing a door when they're after someone on the other side of it?), but on the other hand, I shouldn't have been complaining.

Jone was only half way through the opening of the vent when the door was finally opened. And who was the unfortunate soul who got the door open and got a roundhouse from none other than yours truly?

None other than Jeb.

Although it felt AMAZING to roundhouse Jeb, there were about fifty other whitecoats and experiments/security guards behind him who came charging in. And Fang, Iggy and I were all still in the room. I spun around to shove Jone the rest of the way into the vent and close it, but someone already pulled her out.

She couldn't fight because she couldn't stand. She couldn't kick because she didn't have control of her legs. She couldn't even punch because they had her hands held behind her back. All she could do was scream. I was just glad that the kids got out. But we were trapped. There were too many of them, and we couldn't hold them off. Hell, we could barely fight because the room was so crowded. I felt like a sardine.

I fought as hard as I could. Trust me when I say that. And so did Fang and Iggy. I could see the sweat on their foreheads and the determination on their faces.

But none of it mattered… because the next thing I knew, something heavy and metal connected with the back of my head, and everything went black.

What felt like years later, I woke up in this stupid dog cage with a raging headache. Fang was next to me in a similar cage, and Iggy was across from me.

Next to Iggy's cage was another cage…

…containing Jone.


	10. Dontchya just hate home videos?

**One of my favorite sayings: You should never give up on something you can't live a day without thinking about.**

**What do you think about everyday? Just something interesting to think about…**

Jone POV

This really sucks…

I sat in my medium sized dog cage, my full weight against the very back side, my legs limply extended out in front of me (or at least as far as they could go in a cage).

What was I thinking? How could I ever earn enough sympathy to get an entire family to willingly return to there worst nightmare? I don't even remember the reason why I said I wanted wings. It was just… some part of me was so tempted to do it. To go to the School, where the people I trusted most were tortured.

Yes, I know I've only known them for a short while, but I haven't met many people, let alone people I trust or even like.

I remember the moment I first saw the entire flock, and their wings. They had everything I ever wanted. A home, a family, a slight chance at survival. I guess I was just… jealous. Or something like that. I wanted part of it. But I was so blinded by the possibility of life that I didn't think about the consequences for the flock.

Wow, poetic much? Where did that come from?

I shook it off. I shouldn't be thinking about poetry. I should be thinking about what's going to happen…

Was the fact that I was being held in a cage a good thing? Were they going to fix me? Or were they planning to kill me? But if they were going to kill me, wouldn't they have done it already? I mean, why wait? The suspense was agonizing. I couldn't take it anymore!

Before I started screaming my head off and started to go completely insane, I heard a voice coming from one of the cages across from me.

It was Max.

Max POV

"Jone," I said, my voice just above a whisper, as her head slowly rose to face me, "I- I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have dragged you into all this."

Jone just shook her head. "No, it was my fault. You wouldn't be here if it weren't for me."

I tried to think of a comforting answer. "We've been in worse situations." I lied.

Jone sighed. "You know that's not true. Being in a dog cage in the School _is_ the worst situation."

I cringed, knowing she was right.

Looking at Jone in a cage made her look like an experiment. She reminded me of those many failed experiments who sat just a few feet away from us in their own dog cages everyday, only to die shortly after. I didn't want that to happen to Jone. I didn't want anything bad happening to her.

Oh, no, I thought, my circle was expanding again. Pretty soon, it's going to be hard to keep track of everyone I needed to keep safe, if it wasn't hard already.

I thought more about Jone, this poor girl who happened to stumble into our lives, or perhaps we stumbled into hers. The more I thought about her life, the more I realized how similar it was to ours. She was an out of the ordinary girl who drew attention no matter where she went, who was currently running from the place she grew up in, a place where she was in pain everyday, whether it was physical or emotional pain.

Sound familiar much? I thought so.

About two hours past before the doors of the large room burst open, revealing someone I really didn't expect to see.

Dylan POV

I made it. I landed smack down in the very front of the School. There were nets, small weapons, and shatters of white lab coats all over the ground.

The flock's been here.

I built up my courage, double checking my pants pocket to see if the tiny camera was in there. It was, and so was the card that I need to plug into a computer. Max will never believe Jone was evil unless I have proof. I didn't really know how I was going to show Max the videos, being that I needed a computer to hook the camera's memory chip to. I figured I'd just wing it (no pun intended).

I saw that some of the very few windows on the side of the building were broken. Definitely the flock's handiwork. I flew through one of the windows, successfully kicking a whitecoat in the face, and ran at my fastest speed toward the center of the building. I don't know why, but I just had a gut feeling that Max was there. Maybe it was something programmed within me. Something that had to do with me being Max's scientifically made soul mate.

Whatever it was, it helped. I was close, I knew it. I was almost there, and then-

"Hello, Dylan." I froze. I turned slowly, coming face to face with someone I hadn't seen in a while, and wasn't too glad to see either.

"Hello, Jeb." I crossed my arms over my chest, showing that I wasn't very fond of him anymore, and that I didn't have the patience to talk to him at the moment.

Jeb pursed his lips. "I assume you're looking for Max and the flock."

"What's it to you?" My eyes narrowed.

Jeb hesitated, thinking his answer through. "I could bring you to her."

That took me off guard. I blinked a couple of times, then got my head together. "No, you'd just put me in a cage next to her."

Jeb nodded. "They probably would."

After he said this, I noticed a large bruise near his right eye. I wonder if Max got to him already…

A couple seconds passed, and I wondered if he was going to do something. Knock me out, sedate me, have people come for me, anything. But no. He was alone, his hands shoved in the pockets of his stupid lab coat.

I didn't take the chance. I broke out running back in the direction I was heading. I looked over my shoulder, and there he stood, motionless, smiling a bit. What was so damn funny? Wait, no. He wasn't smiling because something was funny. He was smiling… almost as if he were proud.

I navigated my way through the place, wings tucked tightly against my back. I even stole a lab coat from a supply closet and pretended to be busy so that people wouldn't get suspicious. It actually worked! Those idiots.

I tried a bunch of different doors hoping to find the flock, but I came up empty.

I swung open what seemed like the doors to a large room. And I was right.

Inside the room were medical supplies, including a couple a computers up against the right wall. In the back of the room was another door. It only took five long strides to get me to that door, which needed a key.

Great.

I looked around the room, and saw a small fire extinguisher sitting underneath one of the tables. I grabbed it, and used it to break the lock off. Thank god for my inhuman strength. The door opened, and I alertly stepped inside.

Dozens of eyes turned on me. Eyes that were in dog cages.

"Dylan?" Someone said. I think it was Max. "What are you doing here? I thought you were staying home! And why the hell are you wearing a lab coat?" Yep, definitely Max.

"I need a disguise, don't I?" I said, walking over to her cage.

As I did, I noticed Fang, Iggy, and Jone in their own cages. Jone should be in a cage.

"Where are the others?" I asked, picking her lock with a bobby pin I found on the floor in the hallway.

"They got away, luckily. Dylan, you're never going to get mine open in time. Do Iggy's first, that way he can free the rest of us faster."

I did what she said. "Hey, Iggy, where's your lock pick set?"

"He lost it on the way here," Max said before Iggy could reply for himself.

"Weird. Oh, and I've got other news." I stood up and pointed accusingly at Jone. "Jone is a lying traitor." I said it simply, as if it were just normal conversation. I kneeled back down and worked on Iggy's lock again.

There was nothing but silence.

I lifted my head, and noticed that Max and Jone were gaping at me, Iggy was looking at me as if I were insane (it was freaky how close his eyes can come to reaching mine), and Fang raised a questioning eyebrow at me.

"How can you say that?" Max said at the same time Jone said "I am not! Why would you think that?"

I finished the lock on Iggy's cage (finally), and let him out. He took the bobby pin from my hand, and worked on Max's lock.

"Dylan!" Max faced me once she crawled out of her cage, and I braced myself. "What the hell are you thinking? How can Jone be a traitor? She helped us find Fang. Not that you would know… because you weren't here!"

"Max! Shut up!" I said, officially agitated with her.

"Excuse me? What did you say?" Max put her hands on her hips leader-like.

"I said, shut up. And if you want an explanation, come with me."

Max POV

I cannot believe this bastard.

I didn't want to follow him. I wanted to go and find my flock. But since, with my luck, that would only get us in a situation that would result in pain, loss, pain, and -occasionally- pain, I decided to signal Angel.

_Ange, do you know where you are?_

I waited a couple seconds. Had the thought not gone through? Was I too out of range?

_We're hiding out in an air vent somewhere over the east side of the building._

I guess it did get through.

_Okay, Dylan came and got us out. We're-_

_Dylan's here?_

I mentally sighed. _Yes, Dylan's here. I'll explain that later. Take everyone outside, hidden somewhere away from the School, but close enough that you can here my thoughts._

_Okay! _Angel said enthusiastically. I wondered if she was excited because she was- unofficially- in charge. I have to start rewording my thoughts.

Dylan brought us to the room outside of the one we were just in, and started playing with one of the computers.

"Dylan? Are you serious? What are you doing?" I said frustratingly, "This really isn't the time to be chatting with your one friend on Facebook right now!"

That got his attention. "Would you just be quiet?" I raised my eyebrows at him. I hope he knows his days alive are going down by the boatloads right now.

Iggy came up behind me with Jone in his arms. I snatched a chair and set it down so that Jone could have a good view of the screen as Iggy lowered her into the chair. Yeah, cause that's not spooky for a bind kid, right? (I do hope you could see the sarcasm drooling from that sentence)

Dylan shoved something into the side of the computer, clicked on some things, opened some windows, and badda-bing badda-boom, a video popped up.

It showed the flock in the living room. The sound wasn't on, but I could make out what they were saying from reading their lips. Nudge was saying hi to Jone, and waving in the camera's general direction. I saw Angel playing cards, Total babbling away. Everyone was in the video except Jone.

"This camera was attached to Jone's wheelchair. She's been filming us the entire time." Dylan said, his eyes not moving from the monitor.

I wanted to yell at him. I wanted to tell him he was being ridiculous. But I remained silent, mainly because it actually made sense. The camera's angle was right where Jone's wheelchair would be, and Nudge even looked above the camera and said "hi, Jone". I also remained silent because I honestly didn't know what to say.

I looked down at Jone next to me. Her face showed a mixture of confusion, betrayal, shock, dread, but mostly confusion.

"I-I don't know anything about this." Jone looked up to me, her wide eyes locking with mine. I couldn't see one single tiny sign that she was lying. But the evidence was clear. She said she's had that same wheelchair her entire life. How could she have missed a camera attached to it? "I swear! I have no idea how that got there!" She continued.

Fang was whispering everything that was going on frantically to Iggy, and Dylan was obviously trying to keep himself from laughing in her face and calling her a liar.

"Jone, I don't know if I can believe you" I said truthfully.

"Oh, she's telling the truth alright." Someone said from the doorway.

I spun around in a nanosecond to see the intruder.

Of coarse, because he has the answers to every freaking thing that happens in my life, it was Jeb.


	11. Explanations

**So sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been so busy with dance class and school that I haven't had any time to sit down and write. Oh well enjoy the chappie!**

Max POV

"Before you say anything, or hit me again, let me explain," Jeb said putting his hands up defensively.

Shit! He knew me well enough to know that I was either going to utter some sarcastic remark or punch him again. But, actually, I was kind of looking forward to hear what bizarre excuse he has for an explanation. I put my hands on my hips like the leader I am, and gave him a glare that clearly said _Well you better get on with it before I rip your face off._

I didn't bother to see the others' faces, but I had a pretty promising feeling that Jone was looking at Jeb with confusion, Fang was impassive, Dylan was fighting the urge to say something, and Iggy was attempting to stare down Jeb's general direction.

"It's a long story," Jeb started, "but to sum the most of it up, Jone here is in fact a School experiment." WTF? This time I did look at Jone, and her face portrayed all the emotions I refused to give Jeb the satisfaction of seeing cross my face. "Her creation was meant to test the possibility that we could control a normal human's decisions, without the experiment herself finding out what she was. No, she does not have wings, or any super amazing power, but she does have slightly better strength and speed. Plus, all her senses are heightened. As far as I know, we didn't plan to have all that heightened, but for some reason it was. And she has a-"

Jone POV

While Jeb was rambling, I was thinking.

I was a School experiment? And I supposedly had super strength and speed?

_I'M A SCHOOL EXPERIMENT? _

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I interrupted as I shifted my position in my chair. "As far as _I _know, I don't have any super speed or strength, and my hearing and vision isn't any better than every other kid out there."

"That may be what you think," Jeb replied, "but because of your disability, you really can't tell if you're faster than the rest. But you _are _a bit stronger. Haven't you ever wondered how you can manage to push your wheelchair around all the time without getting tired?" Actually, I've never wondered that. Once I first sat in my wheelchair after the incident when I was four, being in the thing was as easy as breathing.

"And as I recall, you pretty much lived as a loner while in that orphanage, am I correct?" Jeb continued, "Which also means you most likely didn't interact or converse with many people, so you probably didn't notice that your senses were better." How he knew that I lived in an orphanage was beyond me.

I decided to just go with it. "Okay, so, I was… created… at the School with no special powers or abilities. How did I end up in an orphanage?"

Jeb smiled slightly. What in hell was so funny? "We put you in that orphanage. It's one of the least visited orphanages owned by Itex, so we figured it was perfect because we were never planning on anyone adopting you."

I don't know what was more depressing: finding out that I was living in a place owned by an evil organization, or finding out that my worries of never being adopted were more real than I thought.

"How exactly did you control my decisions? As far as I know I've always been able to decide things for myself."

"We hardwired your brain so that we could sort of control your inner feelings that influence your decisions."

"What do you mean sort of?" Fang demanded, speaking for the first time.

Jeb kept his gaze on me. "Do you know that gut feeling that everyone gets once in a while? Or when you just have to do something because of a certain feeling you have? We control that."

I gasped as everything started to fall into place. Me running away from the orphanage. Abandoning the deserted road that could have eventually lead to civilization to go into the woods. Asking the Flock to take me to the School. Wanting wings. It felt like I decided on those things myself, but in reality it was a certain gut feeling that urged me to do it.

That gut feeling was them. The School… the whitecoats. They mentally pushed me away from my only home (even if I hardly thought of it as home) and towards the Flock.

I became angry as one more thought entered my aching brain.

I set my hard gaze on Jeb again. "And that's how I found the flock, right? You… you… _nutcases _used me to get to the flock! You made me get close to the flock so that you could trick them into coming here!"

My suspicion faltered as Jeb shook his head. "Not originally." He said, "For years we tried to think of ways to test our experiment, and I came up with the idea to bring the Flock into it. I thought, if we could get Jone to convince the Flock to come back to the School, which even some of our top-notch experiments can't seem to do, then we have succeeded. And it looks like we _have_ succeeded."

I blinked a couple times, too shocked to fully process all this. "B-but that doctor! And the woman who visited me! I ran away because the doctor told me I was dying. How could you have controlled that?"

"Jone, you still don't understand. We hired that doctor and the woman to make you think you were dying, and to place the cameras on your wheelchair. Don't worry about those; they were just there for us to record what we were doing. We wanted to urge you to leave, but we needed a reasoning behind it so you wouldn't get suspicious of why you suddenly up and left. Finding out you're dying in a matter of weeks is perfect reasoning to want to run away."

I took a moment to process this. "So… I'm not dying?"

"No, Jone. You are not dying."

I sighed with relief.

"Okay, so, now what? Are you going to lock us up again or what?" Max asked, clearly pissed off, after a moment of awkward silence.

"No, Max. I am not going to try to keep you here. You helped us accomplish another experiment, and for that we are grateful. You may leave in peace."

I was happy for them. For once, something could be done easily for them. Until he added, "Right after we fix Jone."

My eyes widened, again. They were really going to fix me? Even after they had no more use for me?

"The reason we were holding you in cages before was so that we could fix Jone without you causing trouble. That is, until Dylan here came and got you out."

There was another short silence until Dylan spoke up.

"Wait, if you didn't want me to find them, then why did you let me go when you found me in the hallway?" Dylan asked.

"I let you go because I thought my colleague had already fixed Jone like he was suppose to. But apparently he didn't. Come, Jone. I'll fix your legs right now. And if you want, I'll even give you wings because getting use to your new legs may take a while, so you'll need another form of transportation."

I beamed. I was getting my legs back, and wings! And they were letting us go afterward!

Max POV

So, there was some good in Jeb after all. I could hardly believe that he was really letting us go, but I wasn't complaining. But I was still on high alert. Nothing in our life had ever been this easy, and I wasn't expecting that to change now.

Jeb brought Jone a spare wheelchair, and he lead us all to a large room that held some instruments from my worst nightmares. Fang, Iggy, Dylan and I sat outside of the room, too freaked to even stand in the room for more than a few minutes, while Jeb worked on Jone inside.

I was a nervous wreck. Not only could I not sit still because of the horrible antiseptic smell surrounding us, but I also couldn't even imagine what Jone could be going through. Yes, I know her meeting us was completely done by the School, but I still liked her. She was one of the very, very few people on the planet that I would consider calling a friend. Of coarse, now that I know the School can control her, I'd have to be a bit more careful with her.

I realized I was pacing frantically, and sat down beside Fang, trying to calm myself.

Yeah right. Like _that's_ ever going to happen.

I wondered what we were going to do once this was over and we were out of there. Would the Flock be able to accept Jone staying with us if they knew the School could control her? Would _I_ be able to accept that? I can't even accept Dylan and he finally has a mind of his own! And if she couldn't stay with us, where would she go? There was no way she was going back to that orphanage. Especially not after we found out it was owned by Itex. But we can't just dump her on the street! She has no experience of fending for herself besides when she ran away.

As if reading my mind (again), Fang turned to me and whispered, "Hey, Max? What are we going to do about Jone?"

"I don't know, Fang. I just don't know." I whispered back. I was surprised at how open I was being. But, hey, this was Fang I was talking to. I could be as open as possible with him.

I was about to say something else when a really unwanted voice interrupted me.

And it wasn't my Voice this time.

"Are you two serious?" Dylan whispered furiously. "What should we do about Jone? I'll tell you what we should do! We should clip her new wings back and drop her into the Pacific Ocean! She's a traitor controlled by Itex who cannot be trust-"

"Would you shut up?" Iggy interrupted. My eyebrows raised at Iggy's attitude. "It's not Jone's fault that she was created by Itex. She didn't even know. You're just pissed off and taking it out on her."

I was shocked. Iggy didn't usually get like that, but I was kind of glad he did. Dylan needed to hear that, and it really shut him up.

I decided not to waste the time. The younger ones are probably freaking out.

_Angel, can you hear me?_

I had to wait a couple seconds, a couple agonizing seconds, but she finally responded.

_Max! Where are you? Is Jone okay? Why is Dylan there? How did-_

_Angel! Calm down, we're okay. We found Jone. Jeb is fixing her right now. I'm going to show you everything that happened, and I need you to pass it on to the rest of the Flock._

_Okay!_

I replayed everything from when Dylan found us to when Jeb brought Jone into the lab room in my head. I hoped Angel got it all. When she didn't reply when I finished, I started to get worried.

_Ange, you still there? Did you get all that?_

_Yeah, I'm here. I just can't believe it._

_We can't either. We're just waiting for Jeb to finish up with Jone. I want you to talk to Nudge and Gazzy about this. We're still not sure on what to do about it._

_Okay, I can do that._

Now all we had to do was wait, which I didn't know how much more I could do.

**Yeah I know this chapter was kind of bad, but don't worry the next chapter will be up very soon!**


	12. The moment we've been waiting for

**Thank you to jullian brennan for your reviews! You make me smile! : )**

**Do not worry my faithful readers this is NOT the last chapter. And I will try to make this one more exciting since the last one was kind of a bust.**

**Anyway, so here's the chapter!**

Angel POV

Okay. Talk to the flock (or how much of the flock was there). I can do that. I've done it a million times.

Talk to the Flock about Jone's… uh, situation. Haven't done a million times.

Okay, I better just get it over with. We were hanging out in a clearing we found not too far away from the School. We made a fire, with the help of the Gasman, and were roasting packaged meat on sticks over the flame, courtesy of Nudge.

I guess Gazzy noticed how oblivious I was, since my piece of turkey bacon just burned to a crisp while I was conversing with Max telepathically and trying to sort out what to do.

"Hey, what's up, Angel?" the Gasman asked.

I sighed as I carefully slid the bacon off my stick and through it to my right, not caring where it landed. "Hey, guys, listen up. I just got a message from Max." They instantly shut up ("they" meaning Nudge).

"What's going on?" the Gasman asked, a teensy bit of anxiety and anticipation in his voice. While he said that on the outside, he was thinking _Is Max okay? Did anyone get hurt? What happened to Jone? What did Dylan do now?_

I went into both of their minds, and replayed what Max showed me. I even included some of the emotions I picked up from Max when she showed me it. When I finally finished, we were all silent. Even Nudge. Inside her head and out.

Gazzy whistled. "Did _not_ see that one coming! How could we miss something like that when it was right there in front of us? As clear as day!"

"It isn't really clear when Jone didn't even know herself, Gazzy." I said, snapping a bit at him. He cringed. For some reason, I felt like he was directing that last statement to me. If she did know, then I should've seen, or heard, it and warned everyone. But she didn't know. Therefore neither did I.

"So, if Jone is from the School, and they can effect her decisions, how can we possibly trust her?" Nudge asked, surprising me by holding back the millions of things she desperately wanted to blurt out.

"That's exactly what Max asked me to talk to you guys about. They don't know what to do either. Max was afraid of how we would react. She knows we really like Jone, and we kind of want her to stick around. But how can we do that when she has the School on her side, whether she likes it or not?" I considered.

We were silent after that, consumed in our own thoughts. Gazzy was debating whether Dylan was right or not, that Jone couldn't- shouldn't be trusted. Nudge was trying to think of some way that we can disenable the School from Jone's brain so that she could stay with us without anyone being in danger.

Me? I didn't know what to think. I liked Jone. I had taught her to play poker. She made time to play and talk to me when everyone else was too busy. And she didn't think I was creepy, like Max and the others did. Even the Gasman, my own flesh, blood, and feathers thought I was kind of scary sometimes. He would never admit it, but I could see it in his mind.

Jone thought differently. She didn't think it was creepy for a seven year old to control minds, or to want to be leader. I didn't really want to be leader anymore, mostly because of how my last attempt at leader went, but also because of what the flock thought of me when I brought it up. Jone thought it was cute. She thought of it as a little kid striving for bigger accomplishments. Much, _much _bigger accomplishments. I liked that about her. It was my favorite part.

But she has the School _inside her head! _Yeah, I guess Max does too, in a way, with her Voice. But Max doesn't have to listen to or obey the Voice, and she rarely ever does. Jone has to obey, even if she doesn't know she is.

How can we even stand to have someone with that around us for more than five minutes? I know for a fact that the rest of the flock wanted Jone to stay. She was Gazzy and Iggy's pyro partner. She sometimes helped Iggy cook (not that he needed help. She just sped up the process). She doesn't complain or bother to stop Nudge when she starts to babble, she really listens and adds her own thoughts to the endless conversation. Total loved sitting in her lap and being wheeled around the house. And Jone didn't mind him either. Dylan was a lost cause from the beginning. I think Jone could sense that. As for Max and Fang, well, she just respected them. Especially Max. Every time I peer into her mind when she's talking to Max, the only thing in her mind is complete respect and gratefulness. Max _was_ the one who saved her, after all.

There was something in Jone that each one of us (with the exception of Dylan) cared for. Had the School planned it that way? Did they purposefully make her that way so that she could befriend us more easily? I hated not knowing.

It was only about half a minute until Nudge spoke up.

"Maybe Jone just wont come home with us." She said, sadness filling her voice. "Maybe she won't even want to."

"No, Nudge. Of coarse she'll want to." I said, trying to cheer her up a little. I suddenly wished I was paying enough attention to hear what had brought on that thought.

"But what if she doesn't? What if she suddenly wants to go explore the world or go find some family she can live with now that she has working legs _and_ wings. I'm sure she realizes the complication of her staying with us. Maybe she'll feel like she's endangering the flock and runs off for our sake."

Nudge was kind of right. Jone _was_ endangering the flock, and she was just the type of person who would run off for our sake. It certainly would less complicate things. But we would miss her, that I was certain.

The saying "If you love something, let it go" popped into my head just then. We all loved Jone like a sister. So maybe letting her go would be the right thing to do. But, then again, this was all just a theory. We didn't really know if Jone wanted to leave at all.

I realized that the only way for us to decide on what to do, is if we found out what Jone wanted to do.

Our lives are so complicated.

**A.N. Hola readers! I was going to stop here, but then I realized that I promised you guys an exciting chapter! And this was not all that exciting so far. Plus, ending it here would be just cruel. So, on with the chapter!**

Max POV

I sat, half asleep, with my head leaning into Fang's shoulder. I didn't know if he was as worried about Jone as I was. His time with her wasn't very different from the times he spent with my mom. But one time, the day we were teaching her self-defense-in-a-wheelchair moves, he actually smiled at her. It was brief, but you can't really expect much else from Fang. But it showed me that he didn't hate her. In fact, I think Fang sort of likes Jone (of coarse, not in the way that I should be jealous about… not that I get jealous).

If he was worried, he didn't really show it. Iggy, however, did. Every time a noise was made, or a moan was heard, or if Jeb was saying something, Iggy's head would snap up and his sightless eyes would fill with anxiety and/or fear. I didn't blame him. Even if he didn't say it, I knew he really like Jone. But I didn't think he liked her in that way. Iggy loved her, that much was obvious, but it seemed more like a long lost sister.

Dylan, well, you know how Dylan feels about Jone by now (if you don't then I seriously consider seeing a doctor about suffering a horrible case of _stupidity!_)

We waited… and waited… and waited… and I was seconds from exploding.

Did Dylan blurt out something that will soon get him kicked? No (but it was soon expected). Did Jone come out smiling with two working legs? Not yet. Did Jeb come out and tell us something went wrong? No. Actually, the one thing I was trying so hard to avoid happened.

I fell asleep. Deep asleep. I was so tired, Gazzy could've came in and blasted the whole room into the ground and I wouldn't have noticed.

Lucky for me, I didn't have to worry about it too much because as fast as I fell asleep, I woke up. There wasn't any clock on the School walls, but I could tell it was hours later.

I looked to my right. Dylan was fast asleep, drool hanging from the corner of his mouth. I looked to my left, where Iggy was comfortably slouched in his chair asleep, but also easily able to get into a fighting stance incase anything happens. Just like the way he was trained. I felt a stirring, and realized I was still lying against Fang's shoulder. I sat up and looked at him. His eyes were weary, and there were bags underneath them. He was awake while everyone else slept.

"Hey," he whispered, noticing I finally woke up.

"Hey," I whispered back, "has anything happened yet?"

"Jeb poked his head out about ten minutes ago saying it won't take too much longer."

"And how long have I been out?"

"'Bout five and a half hours."

I sighed inwardly. "You should've woken me up so you could've gotten some sleep."

"Don't worry about me. It's no use now. Jeb should be finishing up."

"Yeah, but how are you going to stay awake on the fly home? Do you expect Iggy to carry you?" Fang pursed his lips, telling me that he hadn't thought of that, and signaling that I was right. At the same time, Iggy woke up at the mention of his name.

"Wha- I miss?" He said/yawned.

"Shouldn't be too much longer now." Fang assured him.

I wondered if I should wake Dylan up, then decided against it. He'll need all the rest he can get if I decide to whoop his ass later.

About twenty minutes later, Jeb came out with a smug look on his face.

I waited for him to say something. When he didn't, I blurted, "Well?"

"Jone was a success. Once I inserted the avian DNA her bird kid healing kicked in immediately. Usually it takes days and sometimes weeks for someone to recover from this kind of surgery. But her wings are beautiful, her new legs should be working perfectly fine, and her body seems to be accepting the changes. She'll be a little sore for a while, but other than that she's perfect."

Dylan woke up, making a noise that sounded like a snort. "What's goin' on?"

"Welcome back, Dylan." Iggy said with false enthusiasm.

"Oh, ha-ha. I'm glaring, Iggy." Dylan said with annoyance.

"Stop it, you two." I snapped, "Jeb? Can we see her?"

As if on cue, I heard Jone get up and start to exit her room.

And when she stepped out into the hallway, there was a collective gasp, even from Fang.

**Ta Da! Kind of a cliffy? Well I hope ending it here was better than ending it before. Prepare for the next chapter very soon! (I hope. School started and I'm up till midnight every night doing homework.)**


	13. Last Time

OMFG I AM SO SORY I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN SO LONG! I feel so bad cuz in the last chapter I promised a new chappie soon and it's been over a month! School has literally just taken over me. Well, I'll deprive you of this chapter NO LONGER!

Here we go…

**Jone POV**

**I woke to a bright light. **_**Am I dead? **_**I thought. As my eyes adjusted to the harsh light, I saw Jeb. I saw his every wrinkle, freckle, line, scar, and hair that sat on his face. I never before realized how much you're missing when your eyes haven't been genetically enhanced. Seeing Jeb, I figured that I was still alive. And musing that, I beamed on the inside. On the outside, it was like I was reborn, waking up in a new being, a new body. Then again, I sort of **_**was**_** in a new body. **

**I was a bit sore in my back and hips, but that was okay with me. I was alive. I survived the operation. That was all that mattered… at the moment. I tried to sit up, and was surprised at how much extra weight the wings put on my back. I was also surprised at how thin and muscular I was. I could feel muscles I didn't even know I had. I remember Max telling me about how the flock is super lightweight because they're all muscle and bones, no fat. **

**Jeb stepped out of the room, I guess to talk to the flock. I tried to stand up, and nearly fell over when I did. Luckily I managed to catch myself on the side of the hospital bed. I was standing! My god, I haven't done this in so long! Happiness and relief radiated off of me. Looking down at me feet, I wiggled my toes, and laughed. I wasn't sure of what I was laughing at exactly. Maybe it was just the reality of it all. The wings, my legs, everything had gone perfectly. **

**I rolled my shoulders, loosening up all the knots and tension. I felt the feathers of my wings against my back, soft and large. **

**I was dressed in only a hospital gown with the back open. Thank God I still had underwear on. I undid the tie in the back the rest of the way with one hand so that there was nothing in the way of my wings. I tried to stretch them. It felt strange being able to move parts I'd never had before. The room wasn't large enough to fully extend them (they had to be at least fifteen feet long!), but it was enough. In the reflection of the glass cabinet to my right, I saw my outline. I couldn't see myself exactly-it was glass not a mirror-but I could see the basic outline and colors of myself. I was thinner than I was. Taller maybe? I couldn't tell, I never knew my height. But I was definitely tall, maybe five foot ten. **

**I scrutinized my wings as much as I could in the reflection. They were beautiful. Looking over my shoulder I tried to see what the actual color of my wings were. They were whitish-grey on the top, like a cloud. I spotted darker grey beneath that. And… silver? I saw something shiny down there, but how can feathers be silver? That just didn't make sense. **

**I heard Jeb and Max talking. Then Iggy and Dylan, then Max again. Max sounded pissed. Iggy and Dylan were probably arguing again. **

"**Jeb? Can we see her?" Max asked. Why bother waiting? I thought. They're going to see me sooner or later. **

**I lifted my weight off the bed, trying to balance myself, and stepped out warily. My god, it felt so good to walk again! Of coarse, I couldn't even remember the last time I walked. When I stepped into the hallway everything was so vivid and clear. I could hear better too. I could hear the flock breathing, and how it differed from Jeb's breathing. I never thought about all the benefits and extras that came with having wings.**

**A second after I stepped out of my room, everyone, meaning Max, Fang, and Dylan, gasped. Did I really look that different?**

**Max POV**

**Jone was… beautiful. I couldn't think of any other word to use. The loss of fat made her face thinner, and her jaw line sharper. She was tall, too. Taller than me, even. She could've been a model. Her pale brown hair shined with health and color. Her old fragile thin frame was replaced with a thin yet muscular, well built frame. And her eyes, once a dark sea blue, were brightened and sparkled an electrifying green-blue. Her lips were no longer thin and cracked, but instead fuller and healthier. Her entire being glowed.**

**And her legs! They weren't paralyzed! I remembered from her first day with the flock, she had said she was doomed to that wheelchair until she died. Well, in one way that's true. Jone must feel like she has died… **

**And gone to heaven. **

**Seeing as no one was going to say something, Jone took the opportunity to show us her wings. **

**Oh.**

**My.**

**God.**

**They were cloud white at her shoulders, then turned to grey beneath them, then turned another color in the middle.**

**Metallic silver. **

**She had silver feathers under her dark grey ones. At the very bottom, they turned smoky, dusky grey. If my eyes could grow any bigger, they did when she whipped out those wings.**

"**HELLO? WHY IS EVERYONE SO QUIET?" I hadn't realized that Iggy had been repeatedly asking for a visual. **

"**Oh- uh, sorry, Ig," I studdered. I described her wings to Iggy, and he was just as shocked.**

"**How is that even possible?" Iggy asked.**

"**Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing," Jone said. I almost flinched at her voice, forgetting she even had one.**

**We all turned to Jeb. "I actually have no clue why Jone's wings are such a unique color," he said. That's a first. "It may have something to do with the difference in her brainwaves and controlled sense of thought, but I don't see how that would effect the color of her feathers. It certainly is a fascinating mystery."**

"**Fascinating or not, I want to go outside and fly. Right now." Jone said determinedly. **

"**Woah, that's going a bit far. It's too early. You should take some time to get use to them," Jeb said, his face becoming serious. "You don't want to risk injuring yourself."**

"**I really don't care," Jone said, folding her arms acroos her chest, as if saying "I will not take no for an answer." "Ever since I've opened my wings this wide, I've been itching to get some wind beneath them. I. Need. To. Fly."**

**You go girl, I thought.**

"**Jeb, if the girl says she needs to fly, then she needs to fly." I said matter-of-factly. "It's natural bird kid instincts."**

**We argued like that for a while. I don't know how long. But somehow, Jeb agreed to let her fly, mainly because I reminded him that we were **_**not**_** staying there until Jone was "ready" to fly. In Jeb's world, not even God knows how long that could be.**

**Teaching Jone to fly brought back memories of helping the flock learn to fly for the first time. It took her a little more time because she needed help with running (she fell flat on her face after the first two sprints), but she eventually got the hang of it enough for her to fly to where Angel, Nudge, and the Gasman were hiding. **

**With directions from Angel through our minds, we met them in a forty minute's flight. Angel probably already saw Jone's wings from our thoughts, but Nudge and Gazzy's reactions were full of surprise.**

"**OH MY GOD! JONE!" Nudge screamed, running up to Jone and pulling her into a huge bear-hug before Jone could even tuck in her wings. Jone warmly hugged her back, and once again I wondered what we were going to do with her. Jone, I mean., not Nudge.**

**Hugs were passed around, and then we got back to business.**

"**Okay, Jone. I think you know the what we have to ask-" I started.**

"**No, she **_**does**_** know. She knows exactly what we've all been thinking," Angel interrupted me innocently.**

**I sighed. Well, I **_**guess**_** that made things a little easier. "Jone, you know we love you like our sister. And you know we trust you. **_**You.**_** Not the School. And, since I don't see how we can get the School out of you…-"**

"**Max," Jone said gently, "I understand completely. I love you guys, too. But I would never want to put you guys at risk. I know that that's exactly what I just did in there. I can promise you it won't happen again. So, I've made my decision, no matter what you guys decided. I'm going off on my own."**

**By "her own", I was afraid to think that I knew what she meant. "Jone, you barely know how to fly, and-"**

"**Max, I'll be okay. I remember you guys telling me about how you flew with the hawks for a little while. And that's what I want to do. Besides, I've got nothing better to do with my life."**

**Fang spoke up this time. "Jone, you don't know what could be out there. We were prepared and experienced during that time. You could die."**

**Fang was right. As much as I distrusted the School, there was no way I would let Jone go out and kill herself.**

"**No, Fang. I **_**do **_**know what's out there. You guys told me yourselves. You've traveled pretty much every inch of the known world, you guys shouldn't worry about me." I wouldn't say **_**every**_** inch of the known world. We still haven't been to the Galapagos Islands. Or Fiji. Or Jamaica. That would be nice… "I'll learn fast from the hawks. All my life I've been trapped, boxed in by one thing or another. I've changed since I met you all. And I'm never going back. This is the only way I can truly live a free, fully experienced life. To see the world and **_**experience**_**."**

**She was so noble, so chivalrous to want to do that. Would she go through with her plan? Absolutely. Should she? No doubt. Could she? That's the real question.**

"**Jone, some things are easier said than done." I said simply.**

"**And you're right. I doubt anything in the world comes easy. But that won't stop me from doing it."**

**There. I saw it. That special glint in her eye that means she's fully determined to do what she intends and she won't let anyone or anything stop her. I've seen that glint quite a few times. Fang says he sees it in me sometimes. Well, maybe more than sometimes.**

**It was no use arguing now. I pulled her into the biggest hug I could muster.**

"**Okay," I whispered in her ear, "I trust you. And I believe in you." I pulled away and saw the smallest tear forming in her eye. I wiped it away with my thumb, and she smiled at me.**

"**Promise you'll take care of yourself, and that you'll stay as far away from Itex and the School as possible, no matter what's going on in your head. I don't want them doing any more to you than they already have."**

**She nodded, sniffling back tears of joy (I hoped). "I promise."**

**She turned to Nudge, and she hugged her goodbye, then Angel joined in, then Gazzy. It became one big group hug.**

**When the sob fest was over, I heard squawking and birds crying overhead. I looked up, and a huge flock of hawks were circling the air above us. Almost as if they were waiting.**

**How the-?**

**A small, familiar hand held onto mine, and I looked down to the small mutant beside me.**

**Angel looked up at me and winked. I laughed, and squeezed her hand. Well, at least Jone won't have to go looking for the hawks now.**

**We watched as Jone flapped her wings, lifting herself into the air, and flew away with the flock of hawks.**

**That was the last time we ever saw the girl in the wheelchair.**


End file.
